different between darkness vs murk

English

Alternative forms

• darckness (obsolete)
• darkeness (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English derknesse, from Old English deorcnes; equivalent to dark +? -ness.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?d??kn?s/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?d??kn?s/
• Rhymes: -??(?)kn?s, -??(?)kn?s
• Hyphenation: dark?ness

Noun

darkness (countable and uncountable, plural darknesses)

1. (uncountable) The state of being dark; lack of light; the absolute or comparative absence of light.
   • 1912, Willa Cather, The Bohemian Girl

     Over everything was darkness and thick silence, and the smell of dust and sunflowers.

   • Turning back, then, toward the basement staircase, she began to grope her way through blinding darkness, but had taken only a few uncertain steps when, of a sudden, she stopped short and for a little stood like a stricken thing, quite motionless save that she quaked to her very marrow in the grasp of a great and enervating fear.

2. (uncountable) The state or quality of reflecting little light, of tending to a blackish or brownish color.

3. (uncountable) Gloom; gloominess; depression.
4. (countable) The product of being dark.
5. (uncountable) Lack of understanding or compassion; spiritual or mental blindness.
6. (uncountable) Secrecy; concealment.
7. (uncountable) Lack of knowledge; obscurity or meaning or intelligibility; the unknown.
8. (uncountable) Hell.

Antonyms

• lightness
• light

Derived terms

• pitch darkness
• semi-darkness, semidarkness

Translations

Anagrams

• Danskers

English

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /m?k/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /m??k/
• Rhymes: -??(?)k

Etymology 1

From Middle English merke, mirke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“dark, gloomy, evil”) and Old Norse myrkr (“dark, murky”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkuz (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *merg?- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”). Cognate Danish mørk (“dark”), Norwegian mørk (“dark”), Swedish mörk (“dark”), Icelandic myrkur (“dark”), as also Albanian murg (“dark”), Proto-Slavic *mork? (“darkness”), Lithuanian márgas (“multicolored”), Ancient Greek ??????? (amorbós, “dark”).

Alternative forms

• mirk (archaic)
• mark (dialectal)

Adjective

murk (comparative murker, superlative murkest)

1. Dark, murky
   • J. R. Drake

     He cannot see through the mantle murk.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:mirk.

Derived terms

• murken

Etymology 2

From Middle English mirke, merke, from Old English mirce, myrce (“darkness, gloom”) and Old Norse myrkr (“darkness, gloom”), both from Proto-Germanic *merkw?, *mirkwiz (“darkness”), Proto-Indo-European *merg?- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

Noun

murk (uncountable)

1. Darkness, or a dark or gloomy environment.

   Synonym: gloom

Derived terms

• murky

Translations

Etymology 3

From Middle English mirken, probably from Old Norse myrkja, myrkva (“to make dark, darken”), from Proto-Germanic *mirkwijan?, *mirkwajan? (“to make dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *merg?- (“to flicker; to darken; to be dark”).

Verb

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

1. To make murky or be murky; to cloud or obscure, or to be clouded or obscured.
   • 1918: Booth Tarkington, The Magnificent Ambersons [1]

     Dawn had been murking through the smoky windows, growing stronger for half an hour...

Translations

Etymology 4

Possibly an alteration of merc, from clipping of mercenary.

Alternative forms

• merk

Verb

murk (third-person singular simple present murks, present participle murking, simple past and past participle murked)

1. (African-American Vernacular, MLE) To murder or seriously injure.
   • 1991, Camp Lo, Coolie High

     cause we be murkin from the boogie

     And shittin on the crowds

     'cause they jive fakin woody.

   • 2010, Dana Dane, Numbers (page 232)

     That's why he was able to catch Crush out there sleeping and why he murked him before he could ask him any questions.

   • 2011, Treasure Hernandez, Baltimore Chronicles (volume 2)

     He clowned Sticks, and Sticks murked him for no reason. And I don't know for sure, but I think he murked Trail.

Anagrams

• Krum