Twilight

sb. Forms: 5 twyliȝt, -lyghte, twye lyghte, 6 twie light, twylyght, Sc. twa licht, lycht, 6–8 twylight, 6– twilight; also 6–8 with hyphen. [ME., f. TWI- + LIGHT sb., corresponding to WFris. twieljocht, Du. tweelicht (from 16th c.), LG. twilecht, G. zwielicht. The rare form TWILIGHTING is recorded a little earlier. The exact force of twi- here is doubtful: cf. in same sense MHG. zwischenliecht ‘’tweenlight,’ and LG. twêdustern, twêdunkern, lit. ‘twi-dark.’]

  1.  The light diffused by the reflection of the sun’s rays from the atmosphere before sunrise, and after sunset; the period during which this prevails between daylight and darkness. a. Generally.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 505/1. Twylyghte, be-twyx þe day and þe nyghte, or nyghte and þe day, hesperus.

1555.  Eden, Decades, 32. At the beginnynge of the euenyng twilight … in the morninge twylight.

a. 1600.  Hooker, 2nd Serm. upon Jude, § 33. He must haue darknes for a vision, hee must stumble at noone daies, as at the twi-light.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 113. It [the grotto of Posilippo] hath no light in the middest, but like twilight,… in the twilight of morning and euening passengers vse torches.

1661.  Boyle, Style of Script. (1675), 99. Faith and the Twilight seeming to agree in this Property, that a mixture of Darkness is requisite to both.

1698.  Fryer, Acc. E. India & P., 55. There is little or no Twilight, as there is nearer the Poles.

1796.  Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 52. The twilight is that faint light which opens the morning by little and little in the east, before the sun rises; and gradually shuts in the evening in the west, after the sun is set.

1815.  J. Smith, Panorama Sci. & Art, I. 544. The atmosphere reflecting and refracting the sun’s light, forms a twilight at the distance of even 18 degrees.

  b.  spec. Most commonly applied to the evening twilight, from sunset to dark night. Second twilight: see quot. 1883.

1412–20.  Lydg., Chron. Troy, I. 2733. In þe twyliȝt whan þe day gan fade.

1509.  Hawes, Past. Pleas., ii. (Percy Soc.), 14. In the fayre twylight, I sate me downe for to rest me all nyght.

1588.  A. King, trans. Canisius’ Catech., i vij. Ye quantitie of ye day brake and twa licht (for ye ane is equall to ye vther) of euerie day.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 598. Now came still Eevning on, and Twilight gray Had in her sober Liverie all things clad.

a. 1700.  Dryden, Cock & Fox, 214. When the sun was down, They just arrived by twilight at a town.

1793–6.  Coleridge, Lines on Autumnal Evening, 63. When Twilight stole across the fading vale.

1836.  W. Irving, Astoria, xlviii. III. 99. A chasm that looked dark and frightful in the gathering twilight.

1883.  Chambers’ Encycl., IX. 604/1. A curious phenomenon, known as the afterglow, or second twilight, often seen in the Nubian desert, is referred by Sir John Herschel to a second reflection of solar light in the atmosphere.

  c.  Morning twilight, which lasts from daybreak to sunrise.

c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 505/1. Twye lyghte, be-fore the day, diluculum.

1609.  Daniel, Civ. Wars, VIII. xiv. Upon the twi-light of that day … ere they had full light.

1617.  Moryson, Itin., I. 240. By twilight of the morning we set sayle from Joppa.

1709.  Stanhope, Paraphr., IV. 349. The Law and the Prophets, like the Glimmerings of the Twi-light, dawned first.

1727–46.  Thomson, Summer, 637. At once the bright-effulgent sun, Rising direct, swift chases from the sky The short-lived twilight.

1845.  Browning, How they brought the Good News, iii. ’Twas moonset at starting; but while we drew near Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawned clear.

1863.  Geo. Eliot, Romola, ii. [She] was weary after her labour in the morning twilight.

  2.  transf. A dim light resembling twilight; partial illumination.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 597. As when the Sun … In dim Eclips disastrous twilight sheds.

1709.  Steele, Tatler, No. 8, ¶ 6. A Sable Cloud over-shadowed the whole Land…. A Twilight began by Degrees to enlighten the Hemisphere.

1768.  Sterne, Sent. Journ., Captive. I … look’d through the twilight of his grated door.

1819.  Keats, Eve St. Agnes, xxix. The faded moon Made a dim, silver twilight.

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Note-bks., I. 264. The church … had a grand effect in its tinted twilight.

1872.  Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxx. The soft green twilight of an avenue of trees.

  3.  fig. a. An intermediate condition or period; a condition before or after full development.

  Twilight of the gods [transl. of Icel. ragna rōkkr, altered from the original ragna rōk, the history or judgment of the gods], in Scandinavian mythol. the destruction of the gods and of the world in conflict with the powers of evil.

c. 1600.  Shaks., Sonn., lxxiii. In me thou seest the twi-light of such day, As after Sun-set fadeth in the West.

1679.  C. Nesse, Antichrist, 144. As if the twilight of the church in her minority and nonage … exceeded the noon-day of the gospel-church.

1682.  Dryden, Relig. Laici, Pref., Wks. (Globe), 186. The twilight of Revelation, after the sun of it was set in the race of Noab.

1768.  Gray, Desc. Odin (note). Lok is the evil Being, who continues in chains till the Twilight of the Gods approaches.

1820.  Byron, Mar. Fal., I. ii. 315. At my hour Of twilight little light of life remains.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., xii. He is ever in a sort of twilight, that is neither sleeping nor waking.

1877.  Sparrow, Serm., xix. 251. Voltaire was in the habit of saying that he lived in the twilight of Christianity; meaning thereby, that its sun would soon go down.

  b.  esp. in reference to imperfect mental illumination or perception.

1610.  Holland, Camden’s Brit., Irel., II. 89. I am out of all hope in so great darknesse to discover any twy-light of the truth.

1648.  Boyle, Seraph. Love (1700), 167. The dim Twilight of Human Intellects in this Life.

1722.  Wollaston, Relig. Nat., iii. 54. Thus blind ignorance was succeeded by a twilight of ‘Sense.’

1838.  Prescott, Ferd. & Is. (1846), III. xiv. 127. A shadowy twilight of romance enveloped every object.

1869.  Tozer, Highl. Turkey, II. 307. The minor deities … live in a dim twilight of popular belief.

  4.  attrib. or as adj. a. Of, pertaining to, or resembling twilight; seen or done in the twilight.

  Twilight arc, arch, or 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. 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).

c. 1633.  Milton, Arcades, 99. Nymphs and Shepherds … Trip no more in twilight ranks.

1754.  Gray, Poesy, 56. The muse has broke the twilight-gloom.

1762–9.  Falconer, Shipwr., I. 721. Now Morn advanced Whitening with orient beam the twilight sky.

1794.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Myst. Udolpho, xxxiv. Twilight shade and darkness veil the scene.

1812.  Byron, Ch. Har., II. lx. When the lingering twilight hour was past.

1837.  Lytton, E. Maltrav., I. viii. That twilight shower had given a racy and vigorous sweetness to the air.

1855.  Bain, Senses & Int., III. ii. § 10 (1864), 472. There is a point of twilight dimness when objects begin to be doubtful.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. xv. 169. It is either all day here, or all night, or a twilight mixture of both.

  b.  fig. Having an intermediate character.

1730.  T. Boston, Mem., vii. (1899), 136. The two days before I had a twilight frame, it being neither day nor night with me.

1825.  Waterton, Wand. S. Amer., III. i. 211. A kind of twilight state of health, neither ill nor … well.

  c.  Lighted as by twilight; dim, obscure, shadowy; also fig. of early times.

1629.  Milton, Hymn Nativity, xx. The Nimphs in twilight shade of tangled thickets mourn. Ibid. (1632), Il Penseroso, 133. Arched walks of twilight groves And shadows brown … Of pine.

1810.  Scott, Lady of Lake, VI. Concl. In twilight copse the glow-worm lights her spark.

1863.  Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 77. Warwick,… founded by King Cymbeline in the twilight ages.

1873.  Black, Pr. Thule, viii. Some dim twilight recess—far in among the perilous rocks.

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, IV. 25. Down to the twilight world and the gloom where the buried rest.

  d.  fig. Of the nature of or pertaining to imperfect mental light.

a. 1677.  Barrow, Serm. Acts ii. 38, Wks. 1686, III. 531. Philosophy may yield some twilight glimmerings thereof.

1774.  Fletcher, Salvation by Grace, Wks. 1795, IV. 65. Our short-sightedness and twilight knowledge do not alter the nature of things.

1818.  Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxix. [xxx]. A doubtful, uncertain, and twilight sort of rationality.

  5.  In combination with participle or adj., as twilight-enfolded, -haunted, -hidden, -like, -loving, -seeming, -tinctured adjs.

1891.  C. James, Rom. Rigmarole, 88. Looking out at the soft *twilight-enfolded square.

1904.  Eva Gore-Booth, The One and the Many, 50.

a. 1882.  Rossetti, Ho. Life, iv. Thy *twilight-hidden glimmering visage lies.

1839.  Bailey, Festus, xix. (1848), 202. A state Of *twilight-like existence.

1745.  Warton, Pleas. Melanch., 267. The *twilight-loving bat.

1821.  Scott, Kenilw., vi. Two silver lamps … diffused a … *twilight-seeming shimmer.

1777.  Warton, Ode Hamlet, 5. Morning’s *twilight-tinctur’d beam.

  Hence Twilight v. trans., to light imperfectly or dimly; Twilighted a., partly illuminated; = TWILIT; Twilightless a., having no twilight; Twilighty a., resembling twilight.

1866.  Howells, Venet. Life, 149. Cavernous recesses … *twilighted by twinkling altar-lamps.

1880.  P. Greg, Errant, I. xvi. 245. A room … lighted or rather twilighted by a window looking out on a back court.

1865.  Alex Smith, Summ. Skye, I. 314. A *twilighted shepherd at watch.

1868.  Mrs. Whitney, P. Strong, xvi. Warm twilighted evenings.

1886.  Mrs. F. Caddy, Footsteps Jeanne D’Arc, 226. Centuries, which … we have been until lately accustomed to consider as twilighted ages.

1892.  M. Dods, Gosp. John, II. 94. The sudden night of the Eastern *twilightless sunset had fallen.

1856.  Mayhew, Rhine, 250. The soft *twilighty tone or more ancient piles.

1894.  E. F. Benson, Rubicon, I. 69. That grey shawl is very twilighty.