Etymology Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.
1
A beam of light or radiation.
I saw a ray of light through the clouds.
Strangely light and delicate was his frame and seeming, yet with a sense of slumbering power beneath, as the delicate peak of a snow mountain seen afar in the low red rays of morning.1922, E[ric] R[ücker] Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros: A Romance, London: Jonathan Cape […], →OCLC, page 5:
2
Biology, Natural sciences, Zoology A rib-like reinforcement of bone or cartilage in a fish's fin.
3
Biology, Natural sciences, Zoology One of the spheromeres of a radiate, especially one of the arms of a starfish or an ophiuran.
4
Biology, Botany, Natural sciences A radiating part of a flower or plant; the marginal florets of a compound flower, such as an aster or a sunflower; one of the pedicels of an umbel or other circular flower cluster; radius.
5
Obsolete Sight; perception; vision; from an old theory of vision, that sight was something which proceeded from the eye to the object seen.
All eyes direct their rays / On him, and crowds turn coxcombs as they gaze.1728, [Alexander Pope], “(please specify the page)”, in The Dunciad. An Heroic Poem. […], Dublin; London: […] A. Dodd, →OCLC:
6
Mathematics, Sciences A line extending indefinitely in one direction from a point.
Etymology Via Middle English, borrowed from Old French rai, from Latin radius (“staff, stake, spoke”). Doublet of radius.
1
To emit something as if in rays.
He was one of the unthanked benefactors of his race, who was patiently teaching and serving mankind, whilst they were shrinking from his coldness, or mocking his peculiarities. He could not sing for them a sweet song, or create a “thing of beauty” which should be “a joy for ever,” or touch their hearts, or fire their spirits, or deepen their reverence or their fervour. He was not a Poet, a Priest, or a Prophet, but only a cold, clear Intelligence, raying down pure white light, which brightened everything on which it fell, but warmed nothing—a Star of at least the second, if not of the first magnitude, in the Intellectual Firmament.1851, George Wilson, The Life of the Hon. Henry Cavendish, page 186:
I had no particular woman in my mind; certainly never intended to personify wisdom, philosophy, or any other abstraction; and the orb, raying colour out of whiteness, was altogether a fancy of my own.1889, Robert Browning, letter to Dr. Furnivall:
2
To radiate as if in rays.
3
To expose to radiation.
Rats' eyes with ulcus serpens were successfully treated; one second of raying stopped the progress of the ulcer, which healed uninterruptedly.1928, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, page 219:
ray
noun
Etymology From Middle English raye, rayȝe, from Old French raie, from Latin raia, of uncertain origin. Compare Middle English reyhhe, reihe, reȝge (“ray, skate”), from Old English reohhe (“ray”).
1
Any of the superorder Batoidea of marine fish with flat bodies, large wing-like fins, and whip-like tails.
From his soft eyes the teares he wypt away, / And from his face the filth that did it ray […].1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
spoyling all her geares and goodly ray1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 50:
ray
noun
Etymology From its sound, by analogy with the letters chay, jay, gay, kay, which it resembles graphically.
1
The letter ⟨/⟩, one of two which represent the r sound in Pitman shorthand.