mirkning means late twilight, dusk; darkening of evening. It carries an Arena rating of 1768, earned across 51 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, mirkning ranks #603 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #2,054 of 17,143 for Best Fossil-Poetry Words, #2,104 of 17,131 for Scariest Words, #2,381 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
mirkning is pronounced /ˈmɜːk(ə)nɪŋ/.
Why “mirkning” is a great word
MIRKNING — [Noun] The late twilight or the onset of dusk; the process of the evening sky darkening. From Scots mirken ("to grow dark, darken, become overcast"), from Old Norse myrkna ("dark, gloomy") + the English noun-forming suffix -ing. Unlike "crepusculum," a classical term for twilight in general, or "nightfall," which marks an arrival, mirkning is the deepening act itself, weighted with northern gloom. It is the bruised light draining from a sea-loch, the peat-smoke merging with the gathering haar, and the long shadows of pines dissolving into a single obscurity—a daily, quiet rehearsal for the final extinguishing of light.
Etymology
From Scots mirken (“to grow dark, darken, become overcast”), from Old Norse myrkna (“dark, gloomy”) + -ing (noun-forming suffix), equivalent to mirken + -ing.
noun
- Late twilight, dusk; darkening of evening.e.g.“The gloaming glories o’ the lift hae dwined awa’ to grey,
And clachan lichts begin to blink ayont the mirkning brae.” — 1883, Anthony Cunningham M’Bryde, edited by David Herschell Edwards, Modern Scottish Poets: With Biographical and Critical Notices, page 185:
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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