This synonym for “twilight” comes from the Old English word “glōm,” meaning “twilight,” and “glōwan,” meaning “to glow.” It’s most commonly used in poetic contexts — you’re not likely to ask someone to meet you at gloaming, for example. In Dorothy Parker’s poem “Song in a Minor Key,” she wrote: “Where the lilacs nod, and a marble god / Is pale, in scented gloaming. / And at sunset there comes a lady fair / Whose eyes are deep with yearning.”