Antonym?

[pegkerr]

What is the antonym of crepuscular? Is it matinal?

Edited to add: I learned the word in reference to rabbits, and I'd heard the definition as "most active at twilight." I'm hunting for a word for Ingrid, indicating she's active and alert very early in the morning, what many people would refer to as a "lark." Solveig, who is not a morning person, would jokingly refer to herself, in contrast, as crepuscular--although that wouldn't fit if crepuscular means active at twilight and dawn.

Comments

[jhetley.livejournal.com]

It depends....

If you are talking about animal habits, "crepuscular" animals like rabbits are most active at dawn _and_ dusk, going by light levels. The antonym could be either "nocturnal" or "diurnal," depending.

[fireriven.livejournal.com]

What's the opposite of being active at dusk and dawn? I'm not sure there's a clear antonym: some animals are active in the twilight hours, some during the day, some during the night. Wouldn't diurnal and nocturnal therefore be the pseudo-antonyms?

Hope that helped at least a little. ^_^

[callunav.livejournal.com]

On the other hand, maybe we're not talking about animal habits. In which case, crepescule being the french word for twilight (and isn't that a dreadful-sounding word for something so pretty? Though I've been fonder of it since reading The Swimming Pool Library in which there is a restaurant called "Le Crepescule des Dietés," which is the French translation for Gotterdamerung, and too silly to hold hard feelings against) so we could invent, say aubeal for 'of or pertaining to the dawn.' (Aube is French for dawn.)

I'm all in favor of inventing words whenever called for.

Or perhaps the antonym would be, say, 'crespescule-evitant(s):' avoiding dusk. The possibilities are endless!

(You were talking about animals, weren't you?)

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

You mean the morning twilight? Not that I know--just that I've wondered the same thing. Fortunately don't have a sentence waiting on the word, though (right now, at least).

[psychic-serpent.livejournal.com]

Crepuscular does not have anything to do with dawn. It is specifically a word that means 'having to do with twilight,' although the 'most active at twilight' meaning is another one (in terms of numbers it wouldn't be #1). Purely in terms of adjectives, the antonym would be 'auroral,' since that refers to the dawn. If there's a word that's used to refer to animals who are most active at dawn, however, I'm not aware of it. The second definition of "auroral" on dictonary.com is /2: characteristic of the dawn; "a dim auroral glow" [syn: aurorean]/ A meaning that connects to animal behavior might not show up on dictionary.com, however.

[moodyduck.livejournal.com]

Speaking as an ecologist I've most heard the word in reference to animals active at both dawn and dusk, but that's not a term in my sphere of regular usage.

[leiabelle.livejournal.com]

I learned that word from The Trumpet of the Swan, in, as you said, reference to rabbits. :)

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Yes! That's where I learned it, too.

[carbonel]

"Matutinal" specifically relates to morning, so that'd probably be it -- if "crepuscular" doesn't mean "dawn" and "dusk."

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

That's the word I was looking for!