tenebrae

== Latin == === Etymology === With regressive dissimilation (*m-b > n-b) from *temabrāi, nominalized feminine plural from Proto-Italic *temazros (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *temH-(e)s-ro-, from *témHos. Related to temere. === Pronunciation === (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [ˈtɛ.nɛ.brae̯] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [ˈtɛː.ne.bre] (Classical Latin) IPA(key): [tɛˈnɛb.rae̯] (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA(key): [teˈnɛb.re] === Noun === tenebrae f pl (genitive tenebrārum); first declension darkness, especially the darkness of night Antonym: lūx (poetic) shadow of death prison, dungeon Synonym: carcer (by extension) gloom or darkness of the mind (Medieval Latin) pervasive artistic, cultural, intellectual, moral, or spiritual benightedness ==== Declension ==== First-declension noun, plural only. The singular (tenebra) is marginally attested in Classical Latin. The editors of L&S cite only two attestations, in Apuleius' Metamorphoses and in the so-called Lampridius's Commodus book of the Historia Augusta. (It is somewhat less rare from Medieval and later Latin.) ==== Related terms ==== ==== Descendants ==== === References === “tenebrae”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press “tenebrae”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891), An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers "tenebrae", in Charles du Fresne du Cange, Glossarium Mediæ et Infimæ Latinitatis (augmented edition with additions by D. P. Carpenterius, Adelungius and others, edited by Léopold Favre, 1883–1887) “tenebrae”, in Gaffiot, Félix (1934), Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.