![]() The figurative spiritual sense was in Old English the sense of "mental illumination" is first recorded mid-15c. The -gh- was an Anglo-French scribal attempt to render the Germanic hard -h- sound, which has since disappeared from this word. "brightness, radiant energy, that which makes things visible," Old English leht (Anglian), leoht (West Saxon), "light, daylight spiritual illumination," from Proto-Germanic *leukhtam (source also of Old Saxon lioht, Old Frisian liacht, Middle Dutch lucht, Dutch licht, Old High German lioht, German Licht, Gothic liuhaĆ¾ "light"), from PIE root *leuk- "light, brightness." "She was in the twilight zone between the races where each might claim her. In the 1909 novel "In the Twilight Zone," the reference is to mulatto heritage. Twilight zone is from 1901 in a literal sense, a part of the sky lit by twilight from 1909 in extended senses in references to topics or cases where authority or behavior is unclear. Compare also Sanskrit samdhya "twilight," literally "a holding together, junction," Middle High German zwischerliecht, literally "tweenlight." Originally and most commonly in English with reference to evening twilight but occasionally used of morning twilight (a sense first attested mid-15c.). Exact connotation of twi- in this word is unclear, but it appears to refer to "half" light, rather than the fact that twilight occurs twice a day. ![]() ( twilighting), a compound of twi- + light (n.) Cognate with Middle Flemish twilicht, Dutch tweelicht (16c.), Middle High German twelicht, German zwielicht. "light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon at morning and evening," late 14c.
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