Brewer's: Solstice

(2 syl.). The summer solstice is June 21st; the winter solstice is December 22nd; so called because, on arriving at the corresponding points of the ecliptic, the sun is stopped and made to approach the equator again. (Latin, sol sistil or stat, the sun stops.)

Source: Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, E. Cobham Brewer, 1894
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