Other forms: dawning, dawned, dawns
Dawn is the moment the sky first lightens, before the sun itself appears. Grey turning to grey-blue, and the first birds.
It is earlier than sunrise, which is the sun clearing the horizon, and the two are often confused. The word carries a strong sense of beginnings, which is why the dawn of an age or the dawn of civilisation is such a well-worn phrase. As a verb it does something clever: a day dawns, and so does an idea, since when something dawns on you it arrives in the mind the way light arrives in a sky.
1noundawnThe first light of day, before sunrise.
“They set off at dawn.”
2nounbeginningThe beginning of something.
“It was the dawn of a new industry.”
3verbbecomeTo become gradually clear to someone.
“It slowly dawned on her that he had lied.”
Too few real examples of this word to estimate which sense is commonest.
Also accepted in games: daybreak, sunrise
Dawn is a word made backwards. Middle English had dawning first, and dawn was cut out of it, with the noun then taken from the verb.
Proto-Indo-European
*dʰegʷʰ-
Middle English
dawnen
English, today
dawn
Built from
From Middle English dawnen. From Middle English dawnen, either a a back-formation from dawnynge or a modification of dawen (“to dawn”) after it. The noun is from the verb.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA