afterlight

English

Etymology

after- +‎ light

Noun

afterlight (uncountable)

1. Light that follows something, especially the dim light in the sky after the sun has fully set.

   Synonym: afterglow

   Antonyms: foreglow, forelight

   • 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 2, in Anne of Green Gables‎^[1], Boston: L.C. Page, page 30:

     The sun had set some time since, but the landscape was still clear in the mellow afterlight.

   • 1949, Dorothy L. Sayers (translator), The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri Cantica 1: Hell, Penguin, Canto 16, p. 170,^[2]

     So may thy soul these many years abide / Housed in thy body, and the after-light / Of fame shine long behind thee,

   • 1987, Toni Morrison, Beloved‎^[3], New York: Knopf, page 25:

     For years they saw each other in full daylight only on Sundays. The rest of the time they spoke or touched or ate in darkness. Predawn darkness and the afterlight of sunset.

   • 2000, Carol Shields, “Ilk”, in Dressing Up for the Carnival‎^[4], London: Fourth Estate, page 57:

     the simplifying afterlight of metaphor