Was cut straight by the Rays mean?
This sentence is from Atlas Shrugged, depicting rays of light running through coils of steam enveloping a building: The
rays of a few strong lights cut straight sheafs through the coils.
Is sheafs understood to be the same here?
Does it denote the verb sheaf, as in bundle? First thing to go to mind is the person who said it so naturally by
name, but that seems to be totally wrong to me.
What is the meaning of sheaf? Can you
help me with examples when OED should be revised on my blog?
a. d. i c. d. h. r. e. Physics and Math. A bundle of cells containing rays, lines, etc. All passing through a point.1863 J. Tyndall Heat ix. 359. 300 A sheaf of calorific rays.
1885 C. Leudesdorf tr. L. Cremona Elem. Projective Geoma 2. 22 A sheaf (sheaf of planes, sheaf of lines) is a figure made up of planes or straight lines and passes through a point (the centre of the sheaf) without stopping. It would be quite unlikely to get any type of information from a sheaf to be a sheaf.
1890 T. H. Eagles Descriptive Geom. 1890 Arch. 303 Sheafs of rays which in the case of a source of light..form a cone of which that source is the vortex.
Is there such an image in kaleidoscopic form? Is there a better way to describe the phenomenon of rays of sunlight through the forest.
Sunlight in Woodland by Keggy.
Noun, not verb
Sheafs is here a plural noun, not a singular verb. What is Sheafs? It does exist a verb sheaf meaning to bind up into a sheaf or sheaves, but that is not what this instance of the word is.
And you’re right that sheaf has as its oldest sense a bundle of things, often grains Is there a meaning behind “Taking In Sheaves” in the old tune?
What we have here in your quotation is another extended meaning. If the OED is applicable, it
gives these pertinent senses: 1 E. An array of fire, water, or smoke are darting up together. (Cf. F. Gerbe(.) 1811
- Pinkerton Petral. I. 535 — A thousand sheaves of fire blew up into the air, where, breaking and dispersing, they fell like a shower of stars. V. 535 — The fire ceased to exist until the night had passed. The fire went up and the fire destroyed.
- Hull, “1957 Dufferin Lett. What is the laterals and vertical angles of high lat. are of this position? 125 — A shining liquid column, or rather a sheaf of columns wreathed in robes of vapour, sprung into the air.
Is this one 8a. But even more
likely is this one: 6a. Physics and Math. A bundle of small ray lines. All the all passing through a given point.
- (1863) Tyndall Heat ix. 359. 356e.’11-1886). 302 — A sheaf of calorific rays.
- 1885 Leudesdorf Cremona’s Proj. Geom. 0516 Cremona’s Geom. 0516 Leudesdorf Cremona’s Proj. Geom. 1885 Cremona’s Geom. 1885 Leudesdorf Cremona’s Proj. Geom. 1885 Cremona’s Geom. (1887 Cremona’s Proj. Geom. 1615 Ref. A. Leudesdorf 1875 Cremona’ A sheaf ( sheaf of planes, sheaf of lines ) is a figure made of planes or straight lines, all of which pass through a given point (the center of the sheaf ) in many parts of the world. *The following are examples of the types.
- 1890 Eagles Descript. Geom. 303 -Sheafs of rays which in the case of a source of light..form a cone of which that source is the vortex.
Sheafs or Sheaves?
As for the variant inflections, sheafs and sheaves alternate. This is because they have “the same sense of being able to swap their states of the opposite”. Both are current; I don’t know their relative popularity.
Sheaves date from the 16 th century, and sheaves from the 17th.
In the north of Britain (northern England and Scotland) during the 19 th century and perhaps later could be found dialectal plurals like shove and shoofs.
