Existing or occurring before the arrival of light, or before enlightenment or understanding came.
From Latin 'ante' (before) and 'luminary' (light-giving source), this rare literary term combines the prefix with a word for celestial bodies or enlightenment.
This is an almost extinct word that Romantic-era poets loved for describing the darkness before dawn or before intellectual awakening—it's the kind of poetic language that makes you realize how obsessed 19th-century writers were with light as a symbol.
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