What the heck is a solar anyway?

[Jinglehopper]

Martin uses this room a lot in his writing, it seems sometimes that 3/4 of the action in ASOIAF happens in someone's solar. At first I thought it was something he made up, I'd never heard it before and I thought it was a derivation of sunroom or something like that.

Then as I started writing my own fantasy story, I needed a room that functioned as the character's study or office. Of course I didn't want to use either of those modern words so I was trying to come up with the medeival equivalent. And the first word that popped into my brain was solar, thanks GRRM. But I didn't want to steal a word that was his creation, no matter how much it fit. Upon a little research, I found that he didn't make it up at all and that they were commonly found in English castles (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_(room)) and manors.

Now to my question: Has any other author used "solar"? And if I use it in my story, will it seem derivative of GRRM? Does that even matter?

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[the smiling weirwood]

No, because that's like saying that the words "moat" or "crenellations" are derivative. They're just words. Good thing George is expanding your vocabulary!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I think the word would be so commonplace among medieval history buffs (I've known and used the word in my own writing for more than twenty years), and readers of historical romance (the solar being the room where the ladies of the castle are most likely to be found during the day) that any accusations of being derivative would be ridiculous.

Which might not stop some people from making them ... but still.

 

[Queen Cersei]

i would expect the word in writing aimed at around medieval times. It's a word, so use it!!!!

 

[star.torturer]

I think the word would be so commonplace among medieval history buffs (I've known and used the word in my own writing for more than twenty years), and readers of historical romance (the solar being the room where the ladies of the castle are most likely to be found during the day) that any accusations of being derivative would be ridiculous.

i think also that it is somwhere for a medievil woman to be fond in the day

 

[Jinglehopper]

It is a word! I will use it!

Thanks for the response, everyone.

I didn't notice the apparent association that solar has with women though. I actually thought it was more of a man's room, having to do with governing and documents. Is that assumption wrong? The wikipedia article just mentions that it was a precursor to the withdrawing room of more modern English manors, which might have more female occupants.

Is there a better word I should use to describe a Lord's study or office?

 

[Brian G Turner]

For some reason, when I read the word "solar" as a room, I keep thinking "conservatory"...

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I actually thought it was more of a man's room, having to do with governing and documents.

It is certainly a place where the lord might conduct his more private business, as it would be less public than the great hall. A very great lord -- a prince or a ruling duke -- might have a cabinet (a small, very private room for confidential business) or an audience chamber for receiving guests, but the word office, during the medieval period, was used of rooms like the kitchen or the laundry, the so-called "domestic offices," and study would hardly be appropriate in a time and place when aristocrats did very little studying (or reading) at all. Keep in mind also that neither the king nor the lord of the manor would be writing up his own documents and probably not even most of his "private" letters, he would merely be signing them, which in the case of all but those of the most exalted rank would hardly require a separate room. (The people who did pen the documents might work in a scriptorium, but no business would ever be conducted there.)

But when not conducting business or receiving visitors the lord would more often than not be out and about, and the solar would be left to the ladies on a daily basis.

Brian, I think you are associating solar with solarium, which is like a conservatory but not devoted to plants.