Crepuscules

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A term denoting the periods of twilight, specifically the time when the sun is just below the horizon and the sky is illuminated
2. Referring to the soft light present during the phases of dawn and dusk, creating a muted atmospheric effect
3. Describing the juncture of day and night characterized by subdued lighting and the gradual transition between brightness and darkness

Etymology: "Crepuscules" is the plural of "crepuscule," a noun that entered English from Middle French, which had taken it from the Latin "crepusculum," meaning twilight or dusk. The Latin word is closely related to "creper," meaning dark or obscure, so the sense of dim light at the edges of day has been there from the start. "Crepuscule" is a doublet of "crepuscle," another English form that came through the same Latin source, and of the Latin "crepusculum" itself. Doublets are words that reach a language by two routes, so the English speaker has two near-identical twilight words sharing one ancestor.