Comments on: I walk the line...

Question: I walk the line...

zerokey — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:30:16 -0800

Is there a word (in any language) that describes the precise separation between shadow and light?

I love the shadows of late afternoon. Specifically, I love to walk straddling that line; shadow covering half of my face, and the sun blinding the other half. When I see the line in front of me, I always wonder if anyone has named it (and this time, I finally remembered to ask here!)

By: A189Nut

A189Nut — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:30:55 -0800

Terminator?

By: luriete

luriete — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:32:43 -0800

penumbra?

By: blue_beetle

blue_beetle — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:39:52 -0800

Terminator_(Solar)

By: b33j

b33j — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:46:34 -0800

Chiaroscuro

By: zerokey

zerokey — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:47:21 -0800

I guess I'll have to accept terminator.

I was hoping there was something more poetic :)

By: zerokey

zerokey — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:48:13 -0800

ooh..posted too soon..thanks b33j!

By: scody

scody — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:51:56 -0800

Chiaroscuro is indeed a lovely word, but it doesn't really describe what you're looking for -- i.e., the actual line where light and dark meet. It describes the interplay of light and dark, often in high contrast to each other.

By: Pseudoephedrine

Pseudoephedrine — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 14:57:44 -0800

It'd probably be either the periphery or the penumbra, depending upon how distinct the distinction between the two areas is.

By: infinitewindow

infinitewindow — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:08:26 -0800

Definitely terminator. Remember the ending of The Terminator when Sarah Connor drives toward the mountain landscape that was half in shadow, half in light?

By: cortex

cortex — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:13:29 -0800

Satai, in a loose, geeky sci-fi poetry sort of way.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:52:33 -0800

Not specifically for this but can apply to it: barzakh, an Arabic word for 'boundary.' There's a nice explanation here:

A limit or boundary separating two things is called barzakh in Arabic, which explains why the intermediate realm that separates the temporary and evanescent life of this world from the eternal life of the hereafter is also called barzakh.

By: popcassady

popcassady — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 15:57:49 -0800

step?

By: absalom

absalom — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:01:04 -0800

Yeah, the terminator line. Umbra and Prenumbra are shadow or mostly-shadow, respectively.

By: leapingsheep

leapingsheep — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:14:03 -0800

People who are into faerie witchcraft use "the between" to refer to that dividing line, doorways, and other such "between" places. They say that faeries like it in the between.

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:26:44 -0800

How about: The Limn?

By: sonofsamiam

sonofsamiam — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:28:41 -0800

I was going to suggest 'barzakh', too, because it is used in the sense of this metaphysical or non-determinate boundary, like the inconceivable boundary between two continuous solids.

By: turducken

turducken — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 16:49:19 -0800

I'd vote for "limn," but it's usually a verb -- as in to traverse the line you're describing. Part of the problem may be that it's not actually a line -- it's the abutment of two adjacent things that we consider nouns -- "light" and "dark" -- but that are actually more like colors or states of being. (e.g., there is no "line" between red and white on the US flag, or between feeling happy or sad). Chiaroscuro and gloaming are great words, but they're not what you're looking for, as they imply a mix of light and dark (as in dusk).

I'm sure Baudrillard or Lyotard had something to say about this...

By: Jeff Howard

Jeff Howard — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:00:14 -0800

Daniel Boorstin describes that line as a "verge" in The Exploring Spirit.

For a verge, in my vocabulary of world history, is a boundary between anything and anything else--including, of course, the boundary between the known and the unknown, the familiar and the strange.

Light is the known, dark is the unknown. Who know that world history was poetic?

By: cardboard

cardboard — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 17:48:35 -0800

Joseph Conrad wrote a book called The Shadow Line, and the title refers to both the dark edge of a storm moving across the water and all sorts of metaphors and arty stuff on top of that.

By: knave

knave — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 19:46:34 -0800

The word "cusp" springs to mind, it describes the concept in a general sense. Unfortunately, not specific to light and shade.

By: extrabox

extrabox — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 21:02:50 -0800

In drawing, this transition point is sometimes called the "crest shadow" and is crucial in bringing out the form of what is being depicted.

By: rob511

rob511 — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 23:38:20 -0800

This question reminded me of Kim Stanley Robinson's enjoyable short story "Mercurial," a murder mystery set on the first rock from the Sun. It takes place in a domed city on rails that follows Mercury's sun-shade boundary. The city's name: Terminator.

Although terminator is indeed the (astronomical) term you asked about, another less Teutonic possibility is demarcator. And Star Trek fans might know it as a gorshin.

By: vanoakenfold

vanoakenfold — Thu, 07 Sep 2006 01:55:58 -0800

Something similar to "event horizon" ?