Saturday, September 30, 2006

dayligone

"An Ulster correspondent kindly sent me this word (short for "daylight-gone") as a local usage for twilight or eventide...It is not a dictionary word, but investigating the lexicon led me to discover that English words for daybreak have indeed been many and charming. Over and above, day-break and day-dawn there are day-peep, day-rawe, and day-rim. More abiding has been the day-spring, which the Church of England has preserved in Tindale's phrase about our visitation by "the day-spring on high." From day-spring to dayligone suggests long, basking hours in warm lucid air."
-Ivor Brown's Chosen Words, 1955.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home