dusk
pronunciation
How to pronounce dusk in British English:
UK [dʌsk]
How to pronounce dusk in American English:
US [dʌsk]
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- Noun:
- the time of day immediately following sunset
Word Origin
- dusk
- dusk: [OE] In Anglo-Saxon times, dusk was an adjective meaning ‘dark in colour’ (a sense preserved today in the derived adjective dusky [16]). Its modern noun use ‘twilight’ is not recorded until as recently as the early 17th century. The Old English form of the word was dox, which was descended from the same ultimate Indo-European ancestor as Latin fuscus ‘dark’ (source of English obfuscate [16]).=> dun, obfuscale
- dusk (n.)
- c. 1200, dosk "obscure, to become dark," perhaps from Old English dox "dark-haired, dark from the absence of light" (cognate with Swedish duska "be misty," Latin fuscus "dark," Sanskrit dhusarah "dust-colored;" also compare Old English dosan "chestnut-brown," Old High German tusin "pale yellow") with transposition of -k- and -s-, perhaps via a Northumbrian variant (compare colloquial ax for ask). But OED notes that "few of our words in -sk are of OE origin." A color word originally; the sense of "twilight" is recorded from 1620s.
Antonym
Example
- 1. Dusk is the best time to hear them .
- 2. Traditional boats cross the mekong river at dusk .
- 3. Entire villages vanish into the dusk .
- 4. As dusk gathers , we sweep past the signs for the mountain principality of andorra and re-enter tarascon .
- 5. By dusk yesterday , hamas had fired at least 30 rockets .