English

false dawn

From false + dawn, calque of Arabic صُبْح كَاذِب (ṣubḥ kāḏib).

A compound of false + dawn

Latin fallō ‘to deceive’

Latin falsus ‘counterfeit, false’

Old English fals ‘false; fraud’

Middle English false

English false

Middle English dawnen ‘to dawn’

English dawn

Today it means

noun A thin ambient light which precedes true dawn, typically by around an hour, in certain parts of the world.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / false dawn