Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One of several large masses of silicified sandstone or conglomerate found on or near the ground surface in England and Brittany and believed to be the erosional remains of a sedimentary bed deposited during the Tertiary Period. These masses were used by Neolithic peoples as monoliths.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as Saracen (formerly used in a vague sense for foreigner).
  • noun The name given in southwestern England to former inhabitants of the region, and especially to former workers of the tin-mines, the ancient piles of attle in Cornwall and Devon being designated as “Jews' pits,” “Jews' leavings,” “attal-Sarsen” or “-Saracen,” “remains of the Sarcens,” etc.
  • noun [lowercase] Same as Saracen's stone (which see, under Saracen).

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun engraving One of the large sandstone blocks scattered over the English chalk downs; -- called also sarsen stone, and Druid stone.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun one of various blocks of sandstone found in various locations in southern England.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Short for Sarsen stone, from Early Modern English Sarsen, variant of Saracen, Saracen, heathen, pagan (perhaps in reference to the use of sarsens in ancient monuments); see Saracen.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Saracen

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Examples

  • You may want to take a look at the interesting sarsen stones in front of the house (the same stones used to build part of Stonehenge).

    Enjoy the Ride 2010

  • Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead, Parker Pearson said in a statement.

    Science Project 2010

  • Barbara Bender traces an elemental progression over time in the building of the monuments, from ditch banks of earth to chalk, to wood, and then to stone: both the relatively local sarsen and the bluestone from far away.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • Barbara Bender traces an elemental progression over time in the building of the monuments, from ditch banks of earth to chalk, to wood, and then to stone: both the relatively local sarsen and the bluestone from far away.

    Wildwood Roger Deakin 2009

  • Leaving the pub, I venture out into this cathedral and notice the bob and swing of hand-held lanterns on the far side of a dark field punctuated with sarsen monoliths.

    Archive 2008-06-01 Christopher 2008

  • Leaving the pub, I venture out into this cathedral and notice the bob and swing of hand-held lanterns on the far side of a dark field punctuated with sarsen monoliths.

    Wiccan Energy Rasing Circle At Avebury Christopher 2008

  • Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead, Parker Pearson said in a statement.

    May 2008 2008

  • The mound eventually got covered by different layers of local material; clay, chalk, topsoil, turf and even some sarsen stones.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead, Parker Pearson said in a statement.

    What About Carhenge? 2008

  • Stonehenge's sarsen stones phase is likely just one of many from this later period of the monument's use and demonstrates that it was still very much a domain of the dead, Parker Pearson said in a statement.

    What About Carhenge? 2008

Comments

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  • The theories abound and are far-flung -
    Druidical, say some, or else sarsen.
    Those strange monoliths
    Have spawned many myths.
    The favorite of late is they're Martian.

    December 30, 2014