Dusk is falling. (?)
Irina Tkachova
In the story _ Dusk _ by H. Munro there is the following sentence:
"It was some thirty minutes past six on an early March evening, and
dusk had fallen heavily over the scene, dusk mitigated by some faint
moonlight and many street lamps."
Is it possible to use the phrase "Dusk is falling" as a synonymous
expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
-- -
Irina
N.Mitchum
-----
> expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
You may use it just as you use "night is falling." Dusk is a time
of the day, when the sun has set and night is approaching. The
sentence is not synonymous with "it's getting dark" except as it
refers to the fading daylight.
It's not idiomatic but it's perfectly understandable.
----NM
Jitze Couperus
<irina...@mtu-net.ru> wrote:
>
>In the story _ Dusk _ by H. Munro there is the following sentence:
>"It was some thirty minutes past six on an early March evening, and
>dusk had fallen heavily over the scene, dusk mitigated by some faint
>moonlight and many street lamps."
>
>Is it possible to use the phrase "Dusk is falling" as a synonymous
>expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
>
I wouldn't use it in everyday speech, but it is perfectly acceptable,
Maybe a little too poetic for everyday use.
Note that dawn does not "rise". For some reason, dawn "breaks".
Jitze
Mike Oliver
I would say *night* falls, dusk "settles", and dawn breaks.
How many of you use "twilight" to mean either dusk or dawn, and
how many dusk only?
Jitze Couperus
wrote:
>
>I would say *night* falls, dusk "settles", and dawn breaks.
>
>How many of you use "twilight" to mean either dusk or dawn, and
>how many dusk only?
I would never associate twilight with dawn - to me it is strictly
a dusk phenomenon. Together with that delightful colonial
custom called a sundowner. (Occasioned I am told by the
brevity of twilight at the equator)
G&T of course. Prior to donning dinner jacket to go to the mess.
Jitze
Perchprism
>From: Mike Oliver oli...@math.ucla.edu
>Date: 12/1/00 3:24 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <3A276025...@math.ucla.edu>
>
>Jitze Couperus wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, 30 Nov 2000 20:37:35 +0300, "Irina Tkachova"
>> <irina...@mtu-net.ru> wrote:
>>>Is it possible to use the phrase "Dusk is falling" as a synonymous
>>>expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
>>
>> I wouldn't use it in everyday speech, but it is perfectly acceptable,
>> Maybe a little too poetic for everyday use.
>>
>> Note that dawn does not "rise". For some reason, dawn "breaks".
>
"Dusk is falling" looks like a mistake to me. After it's fallen, what do you
have? Night? Night "falls," making dusk as it does. Dusk can "settle," I guess,
but for me it doesn't do anything standard.
>How many of you use "twilight" to mean either dusk or dawn, and
>how many dusk only?
As a time of day, it's dusk, but as a kind of light it can be twilight at noon
on a cloudy winter's day, and I don't mean on Pelly Bay. It's the word in
English for "half-light."
--
Perchprism
(southern New Jersey, near Philadelphia)
Mike Oliver
Perchprism wrote:
> As a time of day, it's dusk, but as a kind of light it can be twilight at noon
> on a cloudy winter's day, and I don't mean on Pelly Bay. It's the word in
> English for "half-light."
Well, you have half-light just before sunrise, as well, and I'm pretty
sure I've seen twilight defined somewhere to include that time.
But when you're down, don't forget the helpful wisdom of Woody
the bartender from Cheers: "It's always darkest in the middle
of the night".
Matti Lamprhey
> Mike wrote:
>
> >How many of you use "twilight" to mean either dusk or dawn, and
> >how many dusk only?
>
noon
> on a cloudy winter's day, and I don't mean on Pelly Bay. It's the word in
> English for "half-light."
It seems from NSOED that twilight's essence is the gleam from a sun below
the horizon. "Especially in the evening", it goes on to say. So twilight
at noon is figurative at best.
The twi- prefix usually indicates "two" rather than "half", of course.
However, I suspect in this case it's really a contraction of "twixt"
instead.
Matti
David
Or it possibly has the meaning of 'secondary' reflected, refracted or
filtered light. I believe that 'twilight' is not incorrect for other
examples of half-light such as is found in dark woodland.
The Greek 'lyk' means specifically twilight. I may be wrong but did not
Latin use the word twice? Once with the 'twilight' meaning to form
'lucus' "a dark grove" and again with the meaning of 'light', so
affording "lucus a non lucendo"?
--
http://www.dacha.freeuk.com/colour/4r-0.htm
As Tuesday's Sword of Iron Mars the Redden Earth,
Twin Sacraments - of Fire and Blood - dishonour Birth.
Cosi
"Matti Lamprhey" a écrit ...
> "Perchprism" wrote...
> > Mike wrote:
> >
> > >How many of you use "twilight" to mean either dusk or dawn, and
> > >how many dusk only?
> >
> > As a time of day, it's dusk, but as a kind of light it can be twilight
at
> noon
> > on a cloudy winter's day, and I don't mean on Pelly Bay. It's the word
in
> > English for "half-light."
>
> It seems from NSOED that twilight's essence is the gleam from a sun below
> the horizon. "Especially in the evening", it goes on to say. So twilight
> at noon is figurative at best.
Then I shouldn't use the word "twilight" when I try to describe to friends
what solar eclipses are like ?
Claire.
Matti Lamprhey
But a solar eclipse is a case where the sun has gone below the horizon --
of the moon rather than the earth, of course. So "twilight" is very
appropriate.
Matti
R. Fontana
> How many of you use "twilight" to mean either dusk or dawn, and
> how many dusk only?
Either, but the primary meaning is dusk.
--
Richard
Alec "Skitt" P.
"R. Fontana" <re...@columbia.edu> wrote in message
news:Pine.GSO.4.10.10012...@aloha.cc.columbia.edu...
And to that, let's sing:
Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's twilight time.
Out of the mist your voice is calling, it's twilight time.
When purple colored curtains mark the end of day,
I hear you, my dear, at twilight time.
Deepening shadows gather splendor as the day is done,
Fingers of night will soon surrender the setting sun.
I count the moments, darling, till you're here with me,
Together, at last, at twilight time.
Here in the afterglow of day
We keep our rendezvous beneath the blue.
Here in the sweet same old way
I fall in love again as I did then.
Deep in the dark your kiss will thrill me like days of old,
Light the spark of love that fills me with dreams untold.
Each day I pray for evening just to be with you,
Together, alone at twilight time.
--
Skitt (in SF Bay Area) http://i.am/skitt/
I speak English well -- I learn it from a book!
Charles Riggs
<ma...@polka.bikini> wrote:
>"Perchprism" <perch...@aol.com> wrote...
>> Mike wrote:
>>
>> >How many of you use "twilight" to mean either dusk or dawn, and
>> >how many dusk only?
>>
>> As a time of day, it's dusk, but as a kind of light it can be twilight at
>noon
>> on a cloudy winter's day, and I don't mean on Pelly Bay. It's the word in
>> English for "half-light."
>
>It seems from NSOED that twilight's essence is the gleam from a sun below
>the horizon. "Especially in the evening", it goes on to say. So twilight
>at noon is figurative at best.
Somewhere I read that, technically, twilight can be defined as when
the first three stars just become visible on a clear evening. Joyce? I
can't quite recall.
Charles Riggs
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
[...]
> Note that dawn does not "rise". For some reason, dawn "breaks".
Speaking of which, I love to wake up at the crack of Dawn.
But seriously, folks. Day "breaks" in other Germanic languages, too,
because "to break," from Germanic *_brekan_ and Old English _brecan_,
contains the semantic elements of "to crack," "to open," "to begin,"
nicely preserved in the German _anbrechen_, "to break, to crack, to
open, to begin."
GERMAN:
_der Tag bricht an_ (from _anbrechen_); lit., the day "breaks (on)" /
begins. _Tagesanbruch_ = daybreak
DUTCH:
_het aanbreken van de dag_ = daybreak; lit., "the (on)breaking" /
beginning of the day
SWEDISH:
_dagbräckning_ = daybreak (from _bräcka_, to break)
Related terms:
--------------
GERMAN:
_Morgendämmerung_ = dawn (lit., morning dawn/dusk)
_Abenddämmerung_ = dusk (lit., evening dawn/dusk)
DUTCH:
_morgenschemering_ = dawn (lit., morning dawn/dusk)
_avondschemering_ = dusk (lit., evening dawn/dusk)
From _schemering_ = dawn, dusk, twilight, half-darkness.
SWEDISH is different:
_gryning_ = dawn; lit. "graying"
_skymning_ = dusk
_Skymning_ is the same as the Dutch _schemering_.
_Gry_, "to dawn," literally means "to become gray" and is a cognate of
German _grauen_ (same meanings) and Dutch _grauwen_ (same meanings).
Gray is of course the color between the "black" night and the "white"
day.
Then there is German _Morgengrauen_, "dawn"; lit., "morning-graying,"
not to mention _Götterdämmerung_, but enough already.
--
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
Matti Lamprhey
>
> Somewhere I read that, technically, twilight can be defined as when
> the first three stars just become visible on a clear evening. Joyce? I
> can't quite recall.
It sounds as if it may have been Woy Jenkins, the high-ranking politician
who had trouble with his 'r's.
Matti
Rowan Dingle
>And to that, let's sing:
>
> Heavenly shades of night are falling, it's twilight time...
You old smoothie.
--
Rowan Dingle
Charles Riggs
<ma...@polka.bikini> wrote:
>"Charles Riggs" <chr...@gofree.indigo.ie> wrote...
>>
>> Somewhere I read that, technically, twilight can be defined as when
>> the first three stars just become visible on a clear evening. Joyce? I
>> can't quite recall.
>
>It sounds as if it may have been Woy Jenkins, the high-ranking politician
>who had trouble with his 'r's.
Cute, though it took me a few minutes. Seriously, I think it may be a
useful definition.
Charles Riggs
Charles Riggs
<am...@sonic.net> wrote:
>Jitze Couperus wrote:
>
>[...]
>
>> Note that dawn does not "rise". For some reason, dawn "breaks".
>
>Speaking of which, I love to wake up at the crack of Dawn.
A friend of mine used to call that a Pearl Harbor: a sneak attack at
dawn. Or Dawn, in your case.
Charles Riggs
Mark Barratt
"Reinhold (Rey) Aman" <am...@sonic.net> wrote, in part:
> GERMAN:
> _Morgendämmerung_ = dawn (lit., morning dawn/dusk)
> _Abenddämmerung_ = dusk (lit., evening dawn/dusk)
[...]
> Then there is German _Morgengrauen_, "dawn"; lit.,
"morning-graying,"
> not to mention _Götterdämmerung_, but enough already.
So how do we know that _Götterdämmerung_ means "Twilight of the
Gods" and not "Dawn of the Gods" (without actually knowing the
story, of course). How is the ambiguity resolved?
Regards
Mark Barratt
Rainer Thonnes
"Mark Barratt" <mark.b...@philips.com> writes:
>"Reinhold (Rey) Aman" <am...@sonic.net> wrote, in part:
>> _Morgendämmerung_ = dawn (lit., morning dawn/dusk)
>> _Abenddämmerung_ = dusk (lit., evening dawn/dusk)
>>"morning-graying,"
>> not to mention _Götterdämmerung_, but enough already.
>
>Gods" and not "Dawn of the Gods" (without actually knowing the
>story, of course). How is the ambiguity resolved?
There is no need to do so. This is an example where translation has
managed to preserve the ambiguity. Both "Dämmerung" and "twilight"
have the same ambiguity; both can refer both to morning and to evening.
In the land of the midnight sun, of course, they're the same anyway.
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
> > GERMAN:
> > _Morgendämmerung_ = dawn (lit., morning dawn/dusk)
> > _Abenddämmerung_ = dusk (lit., evening dawn/dusk)
>
> [...]
> > Then there is German _Morgengrauen_, "dawn"; lit.,
> "morning-graying,"
> > not to mention _Götterdämmerung_, but enough already.
> So how do we know that _Götterdämmerung_ means "Twilight of the
> Gods" and not "Dawn of the Gods" (without actually knowing the
> story, of course). How is the ambiguity resolved?
After I posted the above, I regretted that I hadn't added "twilight" to
"dawn/dusk" in the German and Dutch examples or used "twilight" instead
of them: either of the following versions would have been better and
answered your question. Thanks for giving me this chance to correct
myself:
> > _Morgendämmerung_ = dawn (lit., morning dawn/dusk/twilight)
> > _Abenddämmerung_ = dusk (lit., evening dawn/dusk/twilight)
or better,
> > _Morgendämmerung_ = dawn (lit., morning twilight)
> > _Abenddämmerung_ = dusk (lit., evening twilight)
--
Reinhold (Rey) Aman
http://www.sonic.net/maledicta/
annik...@ggn.hxls.org
> In the story _ Dusk _ by H. Munro there is the following sentence:
> "It was some thirty minutes past six on an early March evening, and
> dusk had fallen heavily over the scene, dusk mitigated by some faint
> moonlight and many street lamps."
>
> expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
>
>
> Irina
Joy Beeson
wrote:
> > Is it possible to use the phrase "Dusk is falling" as a synonymous
> > expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
--
Joy Beeson, U.S.A., mostly central Hoosier,
some Northern Indiana, Upstate New York, Florida, and Hawaii
joy beeson at comcast dot net http://wlweather.net/PAGEJOY/
The above message is a Usenet post.
I don't recall having given anyone permission to use it on a Web site.
Whiskers
> On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 08:21:36 -0700 (PDT), annik...@ggn.hxls.org
> wrote:
>
>> > Is it possible to use the phrase "Dusk is falling" as a synonymous
>> > expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
>
> Yes, but it's somewhat poetic.
way so it makes sense for it to be able to fall too.
--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
Harrison Hill
> In the story _ Dusk _ by H. Munro there is the following sentence:
> "It was some thirty minutes past six on an early March evening, and
> dusk had fallen heavily over the scene, dusk mitigated by some faint
> moonlight and many street lamps."
>
> expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
>
>
> Irina
It is perfectly natural in my BrE.
"Dawn is rising".
"Dusk is falling".
"The moon is rising".
"Darkness is falling".
All very normal. The hard part comes with this question:
In which of those situations, would you "draw" or
"undrawn" the curtains?
Athel Cornish-Bowden
--
athel
Peter T. Daniels
> On Tue, 19 Sep 2017 08:21:36 -0700 (PDT), annik...@ggn.hxls.org
> wrote:
>
> > > Is it possible to use the phrase "Dusk is falling" as a synonymous
> > > expression to "It's getting dark"? Is it idiomatic English?
>
> Yes, but it's somewhat poetic.