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Guess the Definition

*Curvo pokes head in at the mention of this lovely word 'crepuscular'*

Nocturnal: active at night
Diurnal: active during the day
Crepuscular: active during the early mornings and early evenings (twilight times)

I have known the word in its scientific context for a while, but the other definition also did not escape me. The French word for 'twilight' is crépuscule.
 
It derives from the Latin word ** crespusculum meaning "twilight, dusk" , which in turn derives from the [Latin] adjective creper , which means "dusky, obscure, uncertain. "
It came into use in English in the mid-17th century (c. 1668), it originally described dim, indistinct, or shadowy conditions before evolving to describe animals active at dawn and dusk.

**You all didn't think for an instant you would escape my jumping on this word of LATIN origin to share its etymology, did you?
...Hahaha...fat chance of THAT.😄
 
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Makes perfect sense to me as French is a romance language and therefore derived many of its roots from our good friend Latin.
Yep ... the 5 Romance languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian
Fun fact: English derives 80% of its vocabulary from Latin, either directly or via the Romance languages, most especially French.
And that, children, is what prompted me to learn Latin. 😉
 
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I think I know this word, but I will see if anyone else wants to make a guess first.
 
It seems I only knew it partly! I would have said "decay". :0
Randomness/disorder is also a characteristic because something requires an input of energy to maintain a unique structure.
Think of a sand castle ... it required an input of energy to become something more than sand scattered over a shoreline.
The child (expending its own energy) shapes the sand into a specific structure he has envisioned.
The water in the sand (having it's unique amount of energy) helps the castle to hold its shape even after the child stops patting the sand into place.
Once the child is finished (and walks away) the sand dries out and gravity takes over; the shaped sand loses energy and collapses into a heap of disorganized sand.
This example also demonstrated the Law of Conservation of Energy...it is a closed system... the child expends energy, the sand castle "receives" energy.
 
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It's of Greek origin... noun or adjective?
And is it a "single" something or a multiple/many something?
 
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It may be written or recorded, but it is neither animal, vegetable, or mineral. It is something we may observe in ourselves, or which others may tell us about in themselves.
 

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