1word1day | Sunday Word: Vespertine

vespertine [ves-per-tin]

adjective:
1 (botany, zoology) appearing, opening, or active in the evening
2 occurring in the evening or (esp of stars) appearing or setting in the evening

Examples:

I remember wondering why that was his time to lash out - the vespertine hour, when the day animals were retreating to sleep and the night animals were coming out to hunt. (Susan Straight, Voices, Los Angeles Times, May 2022)

With some species, the hours of activity are even more limited, to either dawn or dusk. Animals only active at dawn are said to be matutinal, while vespertine animals are only active at dusk. (Clay Wollney, Do any crepuscular animals or plants live on Staten Island?, silive.com, April 2015)

The vespertine hour was nigh, and over this iron landscape there floated the moon, an opal button in the sky. (James Huneker, Visionaries)

Odors from strong bacon and boiling coffee contended against the cut-plug fumes from the vespertine pipe. (O Henry, The Trimmed Lamp, and other Stories of the Four Million)

The vespertine light drains by degrees
into the night-time as if through bright
perforations of stars. (Vivek Narayanan, 'Fernando Pessoa in Durban')

Origin:
mid-15c, 'of the evening; belonging to or occurring in the evening,' from Latin vespertinus 'of the evening,' from vesper 'evening'. Evening dew in old science could be humor vespertine. Of animals, 'flying or otherwise active in evening,' from c1600. (Online Etymology Dictionary)