Benyghten

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Caught by the coming of night or left in darkness ; lacking knowledge, enlightenment or moral understanding
2. Overtaken by darkness as evening falls ; ignorant and unenlightened in matters of knowledge or moral judgment
3. Surprised by nightfall and left in the dark ; unenlightened, spiritually or intellectually unaware of what is right or true

Etymology: This is an older spelling of "benighted," the past participle of a verb meaning to overtake with darkness. It is built from the prefix "be-," which in Old English could make verbs meaning "thoroughly" or "over," and "night," from Old English "niht." Spellings like this one, with "y" and a final "-en," were common in Middle and early Modern English, before English spelling settled. The sense of being covered in darkness gradually took on a figurative meaning, so that a benighted person was one left in moral or intellectual darkness, ignorant or without enlightenment. That figurative sense is the one that survived in later English. The literal sense of being caught by nightfall, once common in travel writing, is now rare.