Twilight: the half-light between day and night

Across Europe, words for twilight divide along two old paths. The Germanic line gives English its compound ‘twi-light’, from roots meaning ‘two’ and ‘light’ — the same family as ‘twin’ and ‘lucid’. In Dutch ‘twijlicht’ and German ‘Zwielicht’, the image is of light in two states, neither day nor dark. The Romance line follows Latin crepusculum, from creper meaning ‘dim’ or ‘uncertain’, giving French ‘crépuscule’, Italian ‘crepuscolo’, and Spanish ‘crepúsculo’. Celtic languages picture the same moment through endings and beginnings: Irish ‘clapsholas’ means ‘end of light’, Welsh ‘gwyll’ means ‘gloom’. Greek calls it ‘lykófos’, the ‘wolf-light’ between safety and night. English keeps its old compound, an echo of the same half-glow that coloured northern skies long before streetlamps replaced it.