The opposite of ‘sparkle’ is ‘darkle’!
While most of us have seen things shimmer with light and described it as sparkling, there is an equal opposite to sparkle. The word, darkle, means to become cloudy, gloomy, dark, or be concealed in the dark!
Another interesting fact about darkle is that it is a relatively new word in comparison to its antonym, sparkle! In fact, the first use of sparkle dates back to the 13th century with sparken as in ‘to spark’.
Darkle only originates in the 1800s, and while the exact origin word is unknown, it is believed that the original use of darkle was ‘darkling’.
RossMan posted this on Dec 15, 2011 at 12:00am
The Oxford English Dictionary traced the first recorded use of OMG to a 1917 letter from a British Admiral in which he wrote: "I hear that a new order of Knighthood is on the tapis—O.M.G. (Oh! My God!)—Shower it on the Admiralty!"
Samhainophobia is an intense and persistent fear of Halloween, and it can cause panic attacks on people who suffer it. The word is derived from the old Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the Celtic year. They believed that the ghosts of the dead returned to the Earth on this day. Other Halloween related fears are wiccaphobia (fear of witches), phasmophobia (of ghosts) and coimetrophobia (of cemeteries)
