French Expression
Usage notes: What’s the difference between nightfall, dusk, and twilight? Poetry. The French word for dusk is crépuscule, which to me sounds rather ominous. I suppose the French expression entre chien et loup is too, since it suggests that the limited light prevents you from knowing whether you’re looking at a dog or a wolf,* but somehow the poetry of the expression makes it all okay.
Par exemple…
Je n’aime pas sortir entre chien et loup. |
|
I don’t like going out at dusk. |
Nous l’avons rencontré à la plage, entre chien et loup. |
|
We met him on the beach at twilight. |
Synonymous expressions
- au crépuscule
- à la brunante (Canadian French)
- à la brune (literary)
- à la nuit tombante
- à la tombée de la nuit
- à l’heure bleue
Some sources, including
Littré, state that
entre chien et loup is also synonymous with
à la tombée du jour (dawn), but
Le Petit Robert and
TLFi disagree.
*In the most basic sense, the dog represents the day while the wolf symbolizes the night, but you can take it much further than that.
Chien |
|
Loup |
daylight |
|
night-time |
comfort |
|
fear |
domestic |
|
wild |
familiarity |
|
strangeness |
friend |
|
foe |
hope |
|
despair |
knowledge |
|
doubt |
light |
|
dark |
safety |
|
danger |
More French expressions with chien
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