"The Sun is the star at the heart of our solar system. Its gravity holds the solar system together, keeping everything — from the biggest planets to the smallest bits of debris — in its orbit." -NASA
The word sun is a word inherited from Germanic, the language that predated Old English. It is a branch of the reconstructed Proto Indo-European language. There are several spelling variations in Old English, sunne and sunne, Middle English, seonne, synne, and swne, and finally settling on sun in Middle English. While Old English came from Germanic, there were two Germanic words for sun- one with -n and one with -l. We can see other languages such as early Scandinavian solu, Old Icelandic and Swedish sol, Classical Latin sōl, and others that include the -l. In many terms surrounding the sun, such as solar, it is common to see sol as the root word.
The sun has been worshipped across many many cultures, including the Greeks, the Romans, the Egyptians, and the Norse. They associated the sun with various gods. The Greeks focused on the titan Helios and the god Apollo. The Egyptians had Ra, the god of gods, with 3 variations to represent the morning sun, the midday sun, and the evening sun.
The sun represents light and life. The sun is integral to our way of life on Earth. Without the sun, plants would not be able to grow, and the Earth would grow cold.
Sources:
“Sun, N. (1).” Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford UP, June 2024, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/1469899554.
“Sun - NASA Science.” NASA, NASA, science.nasa.gov/sun/. Accessed 6 Aug. 2024.