黄昏——白日将尽、夜未落定，那段将暗未暗的光。 Twilight; the failing light after sunset, before full dark.
Twilight; the failing light after sunset, before full dark. 黄昏——白日将尽、夜未落定，那段将暗未暗的光。
词源etymology
古英语 glōmung，从 glōm（暮色）而来，仿 ǣfnung（evening）的构词； glōm 又与 glōwan（发光）同族——「暮色」这个词的根上，竟连着「光」。
Old English glōmung, from glōm (twilight), formed on the model of ǣfnung (evening); glōm is kin to glōwan, to glow — at the root of this word for failing light, there is light.
背景the story
这个词在英格兰几乎死过一回：中古以后退出了通用英语，只在约克郡方言里苟着， 却在苏格兰活得好好的。1785 年之后，彭斯（Robert Burns）和一批苏格兰诗人 把它重新写回文学英语——一个词的复活，靠的是一场文学运动。
1877 年，《In the Gloaming》唱遍维多利亚时代的客厅（引文见下），把它彻底钉回了英语。 今天它站在词典里，苏格兰的湿气还没干。
The word nearly died in England: it fell out of general English after the medieval period, lingering in Yorkshire dialect — but stayed alive and well in Scotland. After 1785, Robert Burns and the Scots poets wrote it back into literary English. One word’s resurrection, carried by a literary movement.
In 1877, “In the Gloaming” (quoted below) swept Victorian parlors and nailed the word back into the language for good. It stands in the dictionaries today, Scottish damp still on it.
中文里的邻居neighbors in chinese
汉语写这段光线的词很富：「黄昏」「薄暮」「暮色」，诗里还有「苍黄」。 差别在血统带来的音色——gloaming 一出口就有苏格兰的青草和湿气， 正如「暮色」自带水墨味。谁也替不了谁。
Chinese is rich here: 黄昏, 薄暮, 暮色, and in poetry 苍黄. The difference is the timbre that ancestry gives a word — gloaming arrives smelling of Scottish grass and damp, the way 暮色 arrives carrying ink-wash. Neither can stand in for the other.
In the gloaming, oh, my darling! when the lights are dim and low, / And the quiet shadows, falling, softly come and softly go…暮色四合，我亲爱的！灯火低微幽暗；静静的影子落下来，轻轻地来，又轻轻地去……（中译） Meta Orred Meta Orred · In the Gloaming（1874 年诗；1877 年由 Annie Fortescue Harrison 谱成歌） In the Gloaming (poem 1874; set to music by Annie Fortescue Harrison, 1877) · 1874
They walked home in the gloaming, in no hurry to spend the last half mile. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation The bats come out in the gloaming, stitching quick black seams over the field. 自拟例句 our own example, not a quotation 词典词（MW／OED），正式写作可用。 文学色彩浓：口语说 dusk 就够了， 写 gloaming 就是在写诗——知道这一点，再用。
A dictionary word (MW/OED), safe in formal writing. Strongly literary: in speech, dusk will do; writing “gloaming” is writing poetry — know that, then use it.