apricity
- The warmth of the sun felt on the skin during winter or cold weather.
In a sentence
- She pulled her scarf a little looser, enjoying the apricity of the pale January sun on her upturned face.
- The garden bench faced south specifically to maximize apricity on cold but bright winter afternoons.
Usage note. Apricity is an archaic and very rare word; while it circulates on 'forgotten word' lists online, it has essentially no history of continuous use, so treat it as a curiosity rather than a standard vocabulary item.
Where it comes from
English apricity · entered English 17th c.
Derived from the Latin 'apricus,' meaning exposed to or warmed by the sun, which is related to 'aperire' (to open or uncover). The English noun 'apricity' appears in Henry Cockeram's dictionary of 1623, making it a 17th-century coinage, though it quickly fell out of common use and is now rare.