Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A gold coin of the Roman Empire used in Europe until the 15th century. Also called bezant.
- n. Printing A virgule; a slash.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. A gold coin introduced by Constantine the Great to take the place of the aureus, previously the chief coin of the Roman currency. The coin weighed about 70 grains, and 72 solidi were struck to the pound. The solidus continued to be coined under the Byzantine empire, and at a later period received in western Europe the name of bezant. (See
bezant .) In the middle ages the word solidus often indicates not any special coin, but a money of account, and was translated in the Teutonic languages by shilling and its cognates. Generally, the solidus or shilling of account contained 12 denarii, silver “pennies,” the ordinary silver coins of the period. Abbreviated s., in the sequence £ s. d. - n. A sign (/) used to denote the English shilling, representing the old lengthened form of s., as in 2/6, for 2 s. 6 d. This sign is often a convenient substitute for the horizontal line in fractions, as in
.
Wiktionary
- n. The line between the numerator and the denominator of a fraction.
- n. A forward slash or virgule.
- n. A late Roman gold coin (after 3rd Century CE); a bezant.
- n. chemistry, physics a line, in a phase diagram, below which a given substance is a stable solid and above which solid and liquid are in equilibrium
WordNet 3.0
- n. a gold coin of the Byzantine Empire; widely circulated in Europe in the Middle Ages
- n. a punctuation mark (/) used to separate related items of information
Etymologies
- From Late Latin solidus ("an imperial gold coin, in Medieval Latin applied to various coins, also any piece of money"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English, from Late Latin (nummus) solidus, a solid (sesterce), from Latin solidus, solid; see solid. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It is less often remembered that he built a third pillar, almost as important as the other two: he issued a new gold coin, called the solidus in Latin and the nomisma in Greek, which remained the basis of Byzantine coinage for 700 years.”
“It's similar to but not the same as the solidus, which is the diagonal line in a fraction.”
“Charlemagne and later the solidus was the equivalent in value of twelve denarii.”
“The earlier denarius, worth about eightpence, clearly will not do; and the matter is made more difficult by the fact that Cassiodorus is talking about the ancients (veteres), whereas the solidus was a comparatively modern coin.”
“I agree with you solidus, that is perhaps the most frustrating thing about iTunes.”
“And I would say that the British pound "knit" the world economy together long before the birth of Ben Bernanke, while the golden solidus of ancient Byzantium circulated as global money ages before the reign of Queen Victoria.”
“The excellence of Byzantine administration—hardly Byzantine at all by our usage—is nowhere clearer than in the power of the Byzantine standard gold coin, the solidus known as the bezant in medieval Europe.”
“A virgule is closer to the vertical than a solidus, but usually one has to see them side by side in the same typeface to know the difference.”
“The relationship between infectivity of Schistocephalus solidus Cestoda and anti-predator behavior of its intermediate host, the three-spined stickleback, Gasterosteus aculeatus.”
“Phenotypic manipulation by the cestode parasite Schistocephalus solidus of its intermediate host, Gasterosteus aculeatus, the threespine stickleback.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘solidus’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11250 more...
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phrontistery-s
from phrontistery.info
sabaton, sabbatarian, sabbulonarium, sabelline, sabin, sable, sabliere, sabot, sabretache, sabulous, saburration, saccade and 1593 more...
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Logolepsy
"Luciferous Logolepsy is a collection of over 9,000 obscure English words. Though the definition of an 'English' word might seem to be straightforward, it is not. There exist so many adopted, deriv...
Anschauung, Areopagus, Argus, Briarean, Dei gratia, Dei judicium, Deo volente, Duecento, Foehn, Geflugelte Worte, Gegenschein, Hakenkreuz and 9230 more...
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cicatrix
scar tissue
minatory, naira, Cluniac, embracive, prolix, hierophant, timorous, adduce, veracious, dysphoric, sang-froid, vitiate and 505 more...
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Marks
names of punctuation marks, accent marks, and other graphic signs and graphical characters used in printed, written, or digital text.
comma, period, parenthesis, apostrophe, colon, semicolon, slash, stroke, brackets, dash, em dash, en dash and 72 more...
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logos's list
A poor pathetic thing, but mine own.
invidious, lugubriousness, vilify, noisome, synastry, front and center, declension, conjugation, regnal, diphthong, circumlocution, bishopric and 141 more...
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useful ones
ersatz, pastiche, amalgam, polemic, implacable, inchoate, tautology, grum, nonpareil, gracile, supernal, auspicious and 88 more...
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It Has a Name??
Yes. Yes it does.
aglet, armsaye, scroop, rowel, ferrule, rasceta, chanking, philtrum, frenulum, keeper, agelast, punt and 285 more...
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NeoVolt's Words
schadenfreude, serendipity, idiosyncrasy, loess, caducous, vagary, schematic, steeple, licentious, tangential, verisimilitude, vernacular and 385 more...
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chairmanK's list
eristic, eidetic, reticular, legshow, phytomorphic, ophidian, autumnal, frisson, rhizomatic, pulchritude, lubricious, veridical and 110 more...
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delcj's Words
gavotte, perverse, tchotchkes, schmoop, divisural, triplicostate, albatross, snuggery, virgule, separatrix, solidus, tetrodotoxin and 116 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Coined
cent, penny, nickel, dime, quarter, farthing, shilling, halfpenny, twopence, threepence, sixpence, groat and 91 more...
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hober's Words
anglosphere, wiki, slither, cylon, satchel, faustian, ragamuffin, frak, salient, fervid, tartan, snowclone and 299 more...
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5-0
Hecko, words! I’m so happy I’ve found you. I want to keep you all and never want to lose you again. I hope you like it here.
amscray, thistledown, tine, tinsel, pungent, snarl, wail, lanky, viscid, dawdle, luminous, stow and 2719 more...
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rememberers
prolix, ageusia, animadversion, anodyne, antic, arabesque, beadle, brachymetropia, colophon, desquamation, diaphoresis, diegesis and 3255 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for solidus.
Telofy solidus: “⁄”
virgule: “/”
According to The Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst the solidus, as opposed to the virgule (slash), “slopes at close to 45° and kerns on both sides.”
See also Wikipedia: solidus Jun 9, 2010
reesetee The so-called forward slash or stroke. Also virgule. Feb 23, 2007