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Does the word 東雲 _shinonome_ have some stylistic pecularities? What's the
difference between this word and others with the same meaning "daybreak;
dawn"?
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question
meaning aspect word-usage
Aspects in stylistics/meaning of 東雲
東雲【しののめ】 fell out of use many years ago, and it's marked as a 古語 (archaic
word) in dictionaries.

It's now mainly recognized as an uncommon proper noun (e.g.,
[東雲駅](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shinonome_Station_\(Tokyo\)), [list of
fictional characters named 東雲](http://dic.pixiv.net/a/%E6%9D%B1%E9%9B%B2)).
Most people today don't know its meaning.

* * *

Originally, 東雲 referred to a short period of time when the sun is not yet
visible but the sky is already bright (after 暁【あかつき】and before 曙【あけぼの】,
according to [this entry](http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/2123/meaning/m0u/)).

暁 and 曙 are literary words which are still sometimes used to refer to _dawn_
in modern Japanese, but I don't think ordinary people can explain the
difference.

[![dawn](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9vnPx.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/9vnPx.jpg)
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東雲(しののめ) is an old Japanese word that means the sky turning into a madder red
color before sun-rise. According to Chiebukuro, the origin of the word is the
light of the morning sun coming through 篠の目 ‐ the mesh of a window cover and
door made of gregarious small bamboo grass - 篠（しの）.

The word is obsolete today, except being left as the name of area crammed with
high-rise office buildings and luxury apartment houses in Edogawa-ku, Tokyo.

We can find the word, 東雲 in use only in old 和歌 these days. Here are some of
them with my poor translation, which I’m afraid of totally spoiling their
exquisite flavors:

つれなさを 恨みも果てぬ 東雲に 取りあへぬまで 驚かすらむ.－源氏物語 第13文, (Genji-monogatari Chapter 3.) -
While I cannot complain enough about your heartlessness, look, the sky started
to grow light.

「東雲のほがらかと明け行けば己が衣着ぬなる ‐ 古今和歌集 恋の歌 (Kokinwaka-shu : Love songs 637. - It’s sad
that we have to wear each separate clothes and I have to go out, now that the
sky started to grow light.

たぐひなくつらしとぞ思ふ秋の夜の月をのこして明くるしののめ - 千載集 (Senzai-shu 300）. - The night was so
short. I cannot compare my sadness of seeing dawn light with anything else,
while the moon is still hanging in autumn sky.

A proviso:

You need to understand that these poems were written in 平安時代 - Heian era (9-12
Century), when ”通い婚” was a common practice, where a married couple don’t live
togetner under the same roof, and the husband should visit the wife in her
house in the evening and leave out there before the dawn.
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