Crepuscular – the perfect word for twilight

Hello,

This week’s word is crepuscular, one I came across on a list of people’s favourite words and then discovered I wasn’t sure of its meaning. In case you’re in the same boat, the definition of crepuscular is “relating to twilight”. In zoology a crepuscular animal is a creature which is naturally most active at sunset and sunrise. Bats, rabbits, and barn owls all fall into this category, for example.

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A crepuscular sunset on a sultry day, Wexford harbour, Ireland

I suspect the people listing crepuscular as their favourite word are using it as another way of saying twilight (one of my favourite words and time of day). Since the 1660s, crespuscular has been used to describe anything which is dim or indistinct, like the light at that time of day.

Crepuscular comes to English from the Latin word crepusculum (twilight) which is related to creper (obscure) and possibly from krepos (twilight, although this is not certain). The zoological use in English dates to the early 1800s.

An older variant of the word with the same meaning was crepusculine (in English in the 1500s).

A warm welcome to my recent subscribers – feel free to suggest your own favourite word in the comments. Until next time happy reading, writing, and wordfooling,

Grace (@Wordfoolery)