Dymnesse

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The condition of being faint, dark or poorly lit, with little light or clarity to see by
2. A lack of brightness or distinctness, so that things appear shadowy, obscure or hard to make out
3. Dullness of light or vision, a murkiness in which objects and colours become indistinct

Etymology: Before it meant faint or hazy, the root of this word, Old English "dimm," meant plain dark, gloomy, or obscure. The sense of "dim" as weak light came later, so the modern word and its ancestor describe the same murkiness from slightly different angles. The ending is the Old English suffix "-nes," which turned adjectives into nouns of state or quality, as in "goodness" or "darkness." Middle English writers joined it to "dim" to name the condition of being dim. The form given here, with its "y" spelling, is a Middle English variant, and it has since dropped out of use in favour of "dimness," which keeps the same construction.