Logophile’s Lunchbox — Light and Dark

This week, our Lunchbox contains a touch of light and a touch of dark.

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Few sights evoke feelings of wonder and awe as readily as the sun streaming through a break in the clouds. These sublime beams of light have inspired song, poetry, and religious rapture… and yet, this profoundly beautiful phenomenon has a profoundly ugly name: crepuscular rays.

Crepuscular comes to us from the Latin crepusculum, meaning “twilight”, and it describes anything that’s dimly lit or pertaining to twilight.

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Tenebrous is another word descended from Latin, this time from the Latin word for “darkness”, tenebrae. I love the creepy, horror-house feel of this word, which conjures images of something terrifying slithering in the shadows.

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Finally, we have effulgent, from the Latin meaning “to shine”. It’s a word with connotations of awe-inspiring beauty and magnificence, so we often see it applied to exalted individuals.

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Do you have a favorite word for light or shadow? Leave a note in the comments below!