Latin = twilight, a diminutive formation, related to creper dusky, dark, creperum darkness. The etymology given for the very last of those, which is clearly both the earliest and the least assimilated into English, is: Of the nature of twilight dim, dusky, indistinct. adj Pertaining to twilight illuminated by twilight, dim, dusky.
Crepuscular life full#
Resembling or likened to the morning twilight as preceding the full light of day characterized by (as yet) imperfect enlightenment. Resembling or likened to twilight dim, indistinct. ‘twi-dark’.Īnd here are the various crepusc- headwords: crepuscle n. The exact force of twi- here is doubtful: compare in same sense Middle High German zwischenliecht ‘'tweenlight’, and Low German twêdustern, twêdunkern, lit. form + light n¹, corresponding to West Frisian twieljocht, Dutch tweelicht (from 16th cent.), Low German twilecht, German zwielicht. Of the nature of or pertaining to imperfect mental light. Lighted as by twilight dim, obscure, shadowy also fig. twilight vision, vision in which colours are hardly perceptible owing to the dimness of the light scotopic vision. twilight parallel, the small circle of the celestial sphere, parallel to and 18 degrees below the horizon, at the sun's crossing which evening twilight ceases or morning twilight begins (Webster, 1911). in Meteorol., that caused by spectroscopic emission in the upper atmosphere from atoms excited by solar radiation. twilight glow, a diffuse glow in the sky at twilight spec. Twilight arc (also twilight arch), twilight curve, the outline of the earth's shadow, which rises in the east as the sun sets, forming an arch which divides the twilight or shaded portion of the sky from that which is lighted by the direct rays of the sun. Of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight seen or done in the twilight. in reference to imperfect mental illumination or perception. the destruction of the gods and of the world in conflict with the powers of evil also transf. Twilight of the gods, in Scandinavian Mythol. An intermediate condition or period a condition before or after full development.
A dim light resembling twilight partial illumination. Morning twilight, which lasts from daybreak to sunrise.
Most commonly applied to the evening twilight, from sunset to dark night. Citations omitted for the sake of brevity. The OED gives perhaps a more complete view of these, including several similar words with the same ultimate ancestry and which entered English nearabouts the same time as crepuscular did. I’m most familiar with characterizing felines as crepuscular critters, where no bias towards the morning nor towards the evening is either meant or implied. Neither is more of one nor the other, at least in modern use. The answer is that both crepuscular and twilight refer to the the half-darkness of the dawn (that is, before sunrise) and of the dusk (that is, after sunset). Personally, I find dawn and dusk the simplest and most direct of all these, although perhaps twilight places an emphasis on the lighting. Old English had a disambiguating variant, ǽfen-glommung, as today we might use evening twilight. All three of these terms - twilight, crepuscule, and gloaming - seem usable for either half-light period, although during some historical periods occasionally one or the other of the two ends of that was the more common. EDIT: You left out the related gloaming, now included below.It does look like your protagonist is right. I had always thought crepuscular was related to dusk rather than dawn, but I'd be stumped to find another accepted word to describe animals active in morning twilight! Matutinal could mean "of the dawn" but is more likely simply to mean "of the morning" and auroral is more likely to be associated with polar aurorae. but implies that "twilight" isn't "just before dawn", and translates crepusculum as dusk, which is definitely evening twilight. (of certain insects, birds, and other animals) active at twilight or just before dawn crepusculum "twilight." Especially of morning twilight.Ģ. Etymonline says both and particularly morning:įig. Either way, it's morning and evening.Ĭrepuscular is more interesting. That is, it's either half-light or a light which occurs twice a day. Etymology is confused, it seems, but twi- either means "half-" or "two". Twilight can apply to morning or evening.
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