"Lowflowing breezes are roaming the broad valley dimmed in the gloaming."
Inspired by the Radiohead song of the same name, I've developed a strong attachment to the word gloaming. Gloaming has the heavy ancient feel of a Germanic word and yet it flows so well. Gloaming. Gloaming! Here's what the OED has to say:
[repr. OE. glómung str. fem., f. (on the analogy of
fning EVENING) glóm twilight, prob. f. the Teut. root *glô- (see GLOW); the etymological sense would thus seem to be the ‘glow’ of sunset or sunrise (cf. GLOOM n.2), whence the passage to the recorded sense is not difficult.
The vowel of the mod. gloaming is anomalous, as OE. glómung should normally become glooming. The explanation probably is that the ó was shortened in the compound
fen-glommung (as the spelling seems to show was actually the case), and that from this compound there was evolved a new n. gl
mung, which by normal phonetic development became ME. gl
ming, mod.E. gloaming.
In the literary language the word is a comparatively recent adoption
from Scottish writers; but it is found in the dialect of Mid. Yorks.]
1. a. Evening twilight.
b. Said occas. of morning twilight.
c. Shade, dusky light.
2. attrib. (in some instances passing into adj.), as gloaming-fall, -hour, -sight, -sky, starlight; also gloaming-shot, (a) a shot in the twilight (in quot. fig.); (b) the beginning of twilight; gloaming sight, a front sight specially adapted for evening shooting.
Here's the Radiohead song:
Radiohead - The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths In The Cold)
[repr. OE. glómung str. fem., f. (on the analogy of
fning EVENING) glóm twilight, prob. f. the Teut. root *glô- (see GLOW); the etymological sense would thus seem to be the ‘glow’ of sunset or sunrise (cf. GLOOM n.2), whence the passage to the recorded sense is not difficult.
The vowel of the mod. gloaming is anomalous, as OE. glómung should normally become glooming. The explanation probably is that the ó was shortened in the compound
fen-glommung (as the spelling seems to show was actually the case), and that from this compound there was evolved a new n. gl
mung, which by normal phonetic development became ME. gl
ming, mod.E. gloaming.
In the literary language the word is a comparatively recent adoption
from Scottish writers; but it is found in the dialect of Mid. Yorks.]
1. a. Evening twilight.
b. Said occas. of morning twilight.
c. Shade, dusky light.
2. attrib. (in some instances passing into adj.), as gloaming-fall, -hour, -sight, -sky, starlight; also gloaming-shot, (a) a shot in the twilight (in quot. fig.); (b) the beginning of twilight; gloaming sight, a front sight specially adapted for evening shooting.
Here's the Radiohead song:
Radiohead - The Gloaming (Softly Open Our Mouths In The Cold)