different between gloom vs gloaming

English

Etymology

From Middle English *gloom, *glom, from Old English gl?m (“gloaming, twilight, darkness”), from Proto-West Germanic *gl?m, from Proto-Germanic *gl?maz (“gleam, shimmer, sheen”), from Proto-Indo-European *??ley- (“to gleam, shimmer, glow”). The English word is cognate with Norwegian glom (“transparent membrane”), Scots gloam (“twilight; faint light; dull gleam”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

gloom (usually uncountable, plural glooms)

1. Darkness, dimness, or obscurity.
   • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, chapter 4, in Moonfleet:

     Here was a surprise, and a sad one for me, for I perceived that I had slept away a day, and that the sun was setting for another night. And yet it mattered little, for night or daytime there was no light to help me in this horrible place; and though my eyes had grown accustomed to the gloom, I could make out nothing to show me where to work.

2. A depressing, despondent, or melancholic atmosphere.
3. Cloudiness or heaviness of mind; melancholy; aspect of sorrow; low spirits; dullness.
   • 1770, Edmund Burke, Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents:

     A sullen gloom and furious disorder prevailed by fits.

4. A drying oven used in gunpowder manufacture.

Derived terms

• doom and gloom
• gloomies
• gloomily
• gloomy

Related terms

• gloam

Translations

Verb

gloom (third-person singular simple present glooms, present participle glooming, simple past and past participle gloomed)

1. (intransitive) To be dark or gloomy.
   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     The black gibbet glooms beside the way.

   • 1891, Mary Noailles Murfree, In the "Stranger People's" Country, Nebraska 2005, p. 189:

     Around all the dark forest gloomed.

2. (intransitive) To look or feel sad, sullen or despondent.
   • a. 1930, D. H. Lawrence, The Lovely Lady

     Ciss was a big, dark-complexioned, pug-faced young woman who seemed to be glooming about something.
3. (transitive) To render gloomy or dark; to obscure; to darken.

   • A black yew gloom'd the stagnant air.

4. (transitive) To fill with gloom; to make sad, dismal, or sullen.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, Merlin and Vivien

     Such a mood as that which lately gloomed your fancy.

   • 1770, Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village

     What sorrows gloomed that parting day.

5. To shine or appear obscurely or imperfectly; to glimmer.

English

Etymology

From a dialectal variant of glooming, from Middle English *gloming, from Old English gl?mung, from Old English gl?m (“twilight”); synchronically gloom +? -ing. Related to glow.

The OED notes: "The vowel of the modern gloaming is anomalous, as Old English gl?mung should normally become glooming. The explanation is probably that the ? was shortened in the compound ?fen-glommung (as the spelling seems to show was actually the case), and that from this compound there was evolved a new subject gl?mung, which by normal phonetic development became Middle English gl?ming, modern English gloaming."

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /??l??.m??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??lo?.m??/
• Rhymes: -??m??

Noun

gloaming (plural gloamings)

1. (poetry, Scotland, Northern England) Twilight, as at early morning (dawn) or (especially) early evening; dusk.

   Synonyms: crepuscule, glooming, vespers; see also Thesaurus:twilight

   Antonyms: daytime, daylight, nighttime, darkness
2. (obsolete) Sullenness; melancholy.

   Synonyms: crepuscule, glooming, misery, sadness, sorrow, woe

Translations

Verb

gloaming

1. present participle of gloam

References