false dawn
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false dawn
Where it comes from
From false + dawn, calque of Arabic صُبْح كَاذِب (ṣubḥ kāḏib).
noun false dawns
-
A thin ambient light which precedes true dawn, typically by around an hour, in certain parts of the world.
The moon was low down, and there was just the glimmer of the false dawn that comes about an hour before the real one.
Similar: zodiacal light
- Something engendering premature hope; a promising sign which in fact leads to nothing. As Congo nears the 50th anniversary of its independence from Belgium on June 30th, Mr Chebeya’s murky death suggests that 2006 was a false dawn.
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noun light preceding true dawn
| Français | lumière zodiacale |
|---|
Talk about this word "false dawn." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/false%20dawn. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026. false dawn. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/false%20dawn "false dawn." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/false%20dawn.Cite this
@misc{false_dawn_2026,
title = {false dawn},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/false%20dawn},
urldate = {2026-11-07}
}
