Wiktionary

equinox

English

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WOTD – 23 September 2022

Etymology

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PIE word
*nókʷts
During an equinox(sense 1)atnoonaccording toCentral European Time(ignoringdaylight saving time), theSun’sraysilluminatetheEarthasshownin thisdiagram.
A diagram showing where the equinoxes(sense 3)occurinspacerelativeto theEarthand theSun.As the Sunappearstomovearound the Earth (actually, it is the Earth that moves around the Sun), itsapparentpath(theecliptic;yellow circle)firstintersectswith the Earth’sequatorial plane(blue disc)inMarchat the green dot marked “firstpointofAries”,and then again inSeptemberat the green dot marked “first point ofLibra”.In theNorthern Hemisphere,theMarch equinoxis called thespring equinoxas ittraditionallymarksthestartofspring,while theSeptember equinoxis theautumn equinoxthat marks the start ofautumn.It is the other way around in theSouthern Hemisphere.

FromMiddle Englishequinox,equinoxe,equynox(“one of the two periods in the year when the day and night are of equal length, equinox; either the zodiac sign Aries or Libra, in which the sun crosses the celestial equator”),[1]fromOld Frenchequinoce,equinoxe(modernFrenchéquinoxe), or from itsetymonMedieval Latinēquinoxium,ēquinoctium,fromLatinaequinoctium(“equinox”),fromaequus(“equal”)+nox(“night”)(ultimately derived fromProto-Indo-European*nókʷts(“night”)) +-ium(suffixformingabstract nouns).[2][3]The Latin word, ultimately adopted in Middle English and modern English, displacedOld Englishefnniht(modernEnglishevennight).

The rare alternativepluralformequinoctestreatsequinoxas if it were a Latin word; the plural ofLatinnox(“night”)isnoctēs.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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equinox(pluralequinoxesor(rare)equinoctes)

  1. One of two times in the year (one in March and the other in September) when the length of the day and the night are equal, which occurs when the sun is directly overhead at theequator;this marks the beginning of spring in one hemisphere and autumn in the other.
    Synonym:(rare)evennight
    • 1692December 15,Richard Bentley,A Confutation of Atheism from the Origin and Frame of the World. The Third and Last Part.[…],London:[…]H[enry]Mortlock[…],published1693,→OCLC,pages25–26:
      [T]he Months ofMarchandSeptember,the tvvoÆquinoxesof Our year, are the moſt vvindy and tempeſtuous, the moſt unſettled and unequable of Seaſons in moſt Countries of the VVorld.
    • 1793September 22,Edward Williams,“Ode on Converting a Sword into a Pruning Hook”, inPoems, Lyric and Pastoral.[…],London:[…]J[ohn]Nichols;[…],published1794,→OCLC,footnote *,pages160–161:
      The four grand and ſolemn Bardic days are, of ancient uſage, the tvvoequinoxes,and the tvvo ſolſtices; thenevvandfull moonsare alſo, ſubordinately, ſolemn Bardic days:[…]
    • 1838July,Ralph Waldo Emerson,“Milton”,inJ[ames] E[lliot] Cabot,editor,The Natural History of the Intellect(Emerson’s Complete Works; XII), Riverside edition, London: The Waverley Book Company, published1893,→OCLC,page155:
      [H]e [Milton] believed, his poetic vein only flowed from the autumnal to the vernalequinox;and, in his essay on Education, he doubts whether, in the fine days of spring, any study can be accomplished by young men.
    • 1842,Alfred Tennyson,“Will Waterproof’s Lyrical Monologue”, inPoems.[…],volume II, London:Edward Moxon,[…],→OCLC,page194:
      Live long, nor feel in head or chest / Our changefulequinoxes,/ Till mellow Death, like some late guest, / Shall call thee from the boxes.
    • 1848,Charles Richard Weld,chapter V, inA History of the Royal Society, with Memoirs of the Presidents.[…],volume I, London:John W[illiam]Parker,[…],→OCLC,page100:
      21. Report the experiments, if conveniently they may, at both the solstices andequinoctes./ 22. Observe accurately the time of the sun’s rising on the top of the hill and below, and note the difference.
    • 1854,John Williams,“Pro-consul.b.c.55.”, inThe Life of Julius Cæsar,London, New York, N.Y.:G[eorge]Routledge & Co.,[…],→OCLC,page195:
      For[Julius] Cæsarsays, that on the night of the fourth day after his landing there was a full moon. He had before mentioned that the summer was far spent, and theæquinoxnot come, hence, the full moon must have been either in July or August.
    • 2005,Clive [L. N.] Ruggles,“Equinoxes”, inAncient Astronomy: An Encyclopedia of Cosmologies and Myth,Santa Barbara, Calif.:ABC-CLIO,→ISBN,page148:
      The wordequinoxis generally taken to refer to the days when, at every point on the earth, day and night are of equal length. But this definition of theequinoxis a bit misleading. Since it gets light before the sun rises and remains light after the sun sets, the actual period of darkness at theequinoxwill be substantially less than twelve hours, the exact amount depending on latitude and how one defines the boundary between twilight and night.[…]In practice, one cannot determine theequinoxby measuring the length of time between sunrise and sunset.
    • 2006,John T. Koch, “calendar, Celtic”, inCeltic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia,volume I, Santa Barbara, Calif.:ABC-CLIO,→ISBN,§4 (The Seasons),page332,column 1:
      […]Midsummer’s Day falls near the beginning of summer meteorologically, but was the midpoint of summer in the traditional calendar. Though Midsummer’s Day celebrations are common in the modern Celtic countries, there is no evidence that the ancient Celts celebrated either the solstices or theequinoctes.
  2. (alsofiguratively)Thecircumstanceof atwenty-fourhourtimeperiodhaving the day and night of equal length.
  3. (astronomy)One of the twopointsinspacewhere the apparent path of the Sun intersects with the equatorial plane of the Earth.
  4. (obsolete)
    1. (rare)Agale(“verystrongwind”)oncethoughtto occur morefrequentlyaround the time of an equinox(sense 1),nowknownto be amisconception;anequinoctialgale.
    2. (astronomy)Acelestial equator(“great circleon thecelestial sphere,coincidentwith theplaneof the Earth'sequator(the equatorial plane)”);also, the Earth's equator.
      Synonym:(obsolete)equinoctial line
      • 1697,William Dampier,chapter IV, inA New Voyage Round the World.[…],London:[…]James Knapton,[…],→OCLC,page90:
        [T]hey [seals] are over all theAmericanCoaſt of theSouth Seas,fromTerra del Fuego,up to the Equinoctial Line: but to the North of theEquinoxagain, in theſe Sea, I never ſavv any, till as far as 21 North Lat[itude].

Alternative forms

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Hyponyms

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Coordinate terms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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See also

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References

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  1. ^“ē̆quinox,n.”,inMED Online,Ann Arbor, Mich.:University of Michigan,2007.
  2. ^Compare“equinox,n.”,inOED Online⁠,Oxford:Oxford University Press,March 2022.
  3. ^“equinox,n.”,inDictionary Unabridged,Dictionary, LLC,1995–present, reproduced fromStuart Berg Flexner,editor in chief,Random House Unabridged Dictionary,2nd edition, New York, N.Y.:Random House,1993,→ISBN.

Further reading

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Dutch

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Etymology

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Borrowed fromFrenchéquinoxe,fromLatinaequinoctium.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key):/ˌeː.k(ʋ)iˈnɔks/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Hyphenation:equi‧nox
  • Rhymes:-ɔks

Noun

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equinoxm(pluralequinoxen)

  1. equinox
    Synonyms:dag-en-nachtevening,equinoctium,nachtevening

Derived terms

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