darkとは

意味・読み方・使い方

語源 1

From Middle English derk, from 古期英語 deorc, from Proto-West Germanic *derk (“dark”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰerg- (“dim, dull”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰer- (“dull, dirty”).

形容詞

A fairly dark (lacking light) railroad station, with a very dark (lacking light) tunnel beyond

A woman with dark hair and skin.

dark (comparative darker, superlative darkest)

1. Having an absolute or (more often) relative lack of light.

   The room was too dark for reading.

   • 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], OCLC 752825175:

     They burned the old gun that used to stand in the dark corner up in the garret, close to the stuffed fox that always grinned so fiercely. Perhaps the reason why he seemed in such a ghastly rage was that he did not come by his death fairly. And why else was he put away up there out of sight?—and so magnificent a brush as he had too.

   • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

   1. (of a source of light) Extinguished.

      Dark signals should be treated as all-way stop signs.

   2. Deprived of sight; blind.
      • 29 March 1661 (entry), 1818 (first published), John Evelyn, Diary

        He was, I think, at this time quite dark, and so had been for some years.

2. (of colour) Dull or deeper in hue; not bright or light.

   my sister's hair is darker than mine;  her skin grew dark with a suntan

   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0045:

     Serene, smiling, enigmatic, she faced him with no fear whatever showing in her dark eyes. The clear light of the bright autumn morning had no terrors for youth and health like hers.

   • 1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 2, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN:

     If I close my eyes I can see Marie today as I saw her then. Round, rosy face, snub nose, dark hair piled up in a chignon.

3. (broadcasting, of a television station) Off the air; not transmitting.
4. Hidden, secret, obscure.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene i]:

     Meantime we shall express our darker purpose

   1. Not clear to the understanding; not easily through; obscure; mysterious; hidden.
      • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:

        What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?

      • 1594–, Richard Hooker, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie

        What may seem dark at the first, will afterward be found more plain.

      • 1801, Isaac Watts, The improvement of the mind, or A supplement to the art of logic

        It is the remark of an ingenious writer, should a barbarous Indian, who had never seen a palace or a ship, view their separate and disjointed parts, and observe the pillars, doors, windows, cornices and turrets of the one, or the prow and stern, the ribs and masts, the ropes and shrouds, the sails and tackle of the other, he would be able to form but a very lame and dark idea of either of those excellent and useful inventions.

      • 1881, John Shairp, Aspects of Poetry

        the dark problems of existence

      • 1923, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter I, in Leave It to Psmith:

        “Clarence, can you lend me three thousand pounds on good security and keep it dark from Connie?”

   2. (gambling, of race horses) Having racing capability not widely known.
5. Without moral or spiritual light; sinister, malign.

   a dark villain;  a dark deed

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 1”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     Left him at large to his own dark designs.

6. Conducive to hopelessness; depressing or bleak.

   the Great Depression was a dark time;  the film was a dark psychological thriller

   • 1856 December​, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson [from the Encyclopædia Britannica]”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, OCLC 30956848:

     A deep melancholy took possession of him, and gave a dark tinge to all his views of human nature.

   • 1819-1820, Washington Irving, The Sketch Book

     There is, in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity.

7. Lacking progress in science or the arts; said of a time period.
   • 1668, John Denham, The Progress of Learning

     The age wherein he lived was dark, but he
     Could not want light who taught the world to see.

   • 1837, Henry Hallam, Introduction to the Literature of Europe, in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

     The tenth century used to be reckoned by mediaeval historians as the darkest part of this intellectual night.

8. With emphasis placed on the unpleasant aspects of life; said of a work of fiction, a work of nonfiction presented in narrative form or a portion of either.

   The ending of this book is rather dark.

同意語

• (relative lack of light): dim, gloomy, see also Thesaurus:dark
• (sinister または secret): hidden, secret, sinister, see also Thesaurus:hidden
• (without morals): malign, sinister, see also Thesaurus:evil
• (of colour): deep, see also Thesaurus:dark colour
• (conducive to hopelessness): hopeless, negative, pessimistic
• (lacking progress): unenlightened

反意語

• (relative lack of light): bright, light, lit
• (of colour): bright, light, pale

派生語

関連する語

• darken
• darkling
• darkness

語源 2

From Middle English derk, derke, dirke, dyrke, from the adjective (see above), or possibly from an unrecorded 古期英語 *dierce, *diercu (“dark, darkness”).

名詞

dark (usually uncountable, 複数形 darks)

1. A complete or (more often) partial absence of light.
   • c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act II, scene i]:

     Here stood he in the dark, his sharp sword out.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 17, in The China Governess‎^[1]:

     The face which emerged was not reassuring. It was blunt and grey, the nose springing thick and flat from high on the frontal bone of the forehead, whilst his eyes were narrow slits of dark in a tight bandage of tissue. […].

   • 2013 July 20, “Out of the gloom”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:

     [Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.

   Dark surrounds us completely.

2. (uncountable) Ignorance.

   We kept him in the dark.

   The lawyer was left in the dark as to why the jury was dismissed.

   • c. 1595–1596, William Shakespeare, “Loues Labour’s Lost”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act V, scene ii]:

     Look, what you do, you do it still i' th' dark.

   • a. 1705, John Locke, “Of the Conduct of the Understanding”, in Posthumous Works of Mr. John Locke: […], London: […] A[wnsham] and J[ohn] Churchill, […], published 1706, OCLC 6963663:

     Till we perceive it by our own understandings, we are as much in the dark, and as void of knowledge, as before.

3. (uncountable) Nightfall.

   It was after dark before we got to playing baseball.

4. A dark shade or dark passage in a painting, engraving, etc.
   • 1695, John Dryden (translator), Observations on the Art of Painting by Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy

     The lights may serve for a repose to the darks, and the darks to the lights.

同意語

• (absence of light): darkness
• (ignorance): cluelessness, knowledgelessness, unawareness
• (nightfall): crepusculum, evenfall, mirkning; see also Thesaurus:dusk

派生語