# Origin of "Twilight Zone"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 31, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953 "2006-05-31T23:54:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2006, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/1 "2006-05-31T23:54:52Z")
Which came first: Did the TV show take its name from the expression that one is from (or in) the Twilight Zone, or did the expression originate from the TV series? - Jinx 😕 ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/2 "2006-06-01T00:13:55Z")
IIRC it’s a pilot’s term. It applies, I think, to that period of twilight (natch!) that blurs the horizon, sea and sky into a mess. It is a dangerous time if you are flying with limited instruments. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/3 "2006-06-01T01:56:43Z")
Used first(that I can find) in a speech by William Jennings Bryan in 1908. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/4 "2006-06-01T04:26:02Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > William Jennings Bryan in 1908. “[You shall not](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross_of_gold_speech) press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold” -in the twighlight zone. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/5 "2006-06-01T04:47:14Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > Used first(that I can find) in a speech by William Jennings Bryan in 1908. I was curious about the context, since Bryan couldn’t have been using it in the pilot’s sense, so I googled it. It was used in a speech at the National Governors Association: > [@](#): > > “I am jealous of any encroachment upon the rights of the State, believing that the States are as indestructible as the Union is indissoluble. It is, however, entirely consistent with this theory to believe, as I do believe, that it is just as imperative that the general Government shall discharge the duties delegated to it, as it is that the States shall exercise the powers reserved to them. There is no **twilight zone** between the Nation and the State, in which exploiting interests can take refuge from both, and my observation is that most-not all, but most-of the contentions over the line between Nation and State are traceable to predatory corporations which are trying to shield themselves from deserved punishment, or endeavoring to prevent needed restraining legislation.” ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/6 "2006-06-01T14:37:38Z")
Did the concept of a Twilight Zone on the planet Mercury play any role in the origin or popularization of this phrase? Between the late Nineteenth Century and 1965, Mercury was believed to be tidally coupled to the Sun, with a period of rotation equal to one revolution. This would mean that one side of the planet always faced the Sun, and the other the night sky. But because of libration, there would be a belt on the margins where the Sun bobbed along the horizon and rose and set. In the pre-1965 science lit that I read as a kid, both fact and fiction, this belt was always called the Twilight Zone; here is [an example](http://www.solarguard.com/tcranger.htm) from 1950, before the TV show. But I don’t know when the phrase was coined with respect to Mercury. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2006, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/7 "2006-06-01T17:25:45Z")
> [@Freddy the Pig](#): > > Did the concept of a Twilight Zone on the planet Mercury play any role in the origin or popularization of this phrase? I was going to post the same thing. Reading space books from the '50s, I was quite familiar with the term even before the show, and was not familiar with the older usage mentioned here. I don’t remember noticing any use of the term in Planet Stories like sf from the '30s and '40s, which tended to be much less realistic than that published after the wave of accurate books on space. I should check my Astoundings from the time for stories set on Mercury. ---
**Author:** ![Jinx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Jinx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jinx)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/8 "2017-05-03T16:47:08Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > IIRC it’s a pilot’s term. It applies, I think, to that period of twilight (natch!) that blurs the horizon, sea and sky into a mess. It is a dangerous time if you are flying with limited instruments. Along these lines, I have since found it also refers to the deepest depth in the ocean that light can reach after which all is blackness. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/9 "2017-05-03T17:02:52Z")
I have not heard it used in aviation. My take is that you have Day and Night. In between them, you have a period that is both, and neither. This, I think, is the gist of what Bryant was saying. You can’t hide from the laws of either, because there is no ‘grey area’ – unlike the TV show, where the line between reality and fantasy are blurred. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/10 "2017-05-03T18:00:04Z")
Caves have three zones: the entrance zone, the twilight zone, and the dark zone. Each has its own ecosystem type. In the twilight zone, there’s not enough light for plants to thrive, but there’s enough light that vision is still an advantage for an organism. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/11 "2017-05-03T18:07:37Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Caves have three zones: the entrance zone, the twilight zone, and the dark zone. Each has its own ecosystem type. In the twilight zone, there’s not enough light for plants to thrive, but there’s enough light that vision is still an advantage for an organism. Any idea when that term for that part of the cave was coined? ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/12 "2017-05-03T19:50:49Z")
Interesting - I would have guessed that the term originated with the TV show. In this case, though, the words are common enough, and since the word “twilight” is always about an area of transition, the word “zone” naturally follows. I wonder if Rod Serling got it from anywhere or if he used them together without knowledge of those other places? After we figure this one out, let’s find the source for “the whole nine yards”! ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/13 "2017-05-03T20:47:22Z")
I found this: > [@](#): > > _Twilight zone_ is from 1901 in a literal sense, a part of the sky lit by twilight; from 1909 in extended senses in references to topics or cases where authority or behavior is unclear. In the 1909 novel “In the Twilight Zone,” the reference is to mulatto heritage. “She was in the twilight zone between the races where each might claim her …” The U.S. TV series of that name is from 1959. > **[twilight | Etymology of twilight by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/twilight)** > > "light from the sky when the sun is below the horizon at morning and evening," late 14c.… See origin and meaning of twilight. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/14 "2017-05-04T05:57:34Z")
> [@CurtC](#): > > After we figure this one out, let’s find the source for “the whole nine yards”! I thought that was already [solved](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/27/books/the-whole-nine-yards-seeking-a-phrases-origin.html) (with the help of a doper?) ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/15 "2017-05-04T15:09:12Z")
Sort of memory/association: isn’t there a term “twilight sleep” that is/was used in anesthesiology? ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/16 "2017-05-04T18:44:34Z")
As reported in _The Twilight Zone Companion_, Rod Serling initially thought he had invented the phrase “twilight zone,” but later learned it was an aviation term. His older brother Robert was an aviation writer; perhaps Serling heard him use the phrase. The phrase was certainly “in the air” at the time. Raymond Chandler planned to write a novel titled _Zone of Twilight_; he never wrote it, and died before Serling’s television show premiered. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/17 "2017-05-04T19:31:35Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > As reported in _The Twilight Zone Companion_, Rod Serling initially thought he had invented the phrase “twilight zone,” but later learned it was an aviation term. His older brother Robert was an aviation writer; perhaps Serling heard him use the phrase. I would tend to accept Rod’s account, since (like I noted above), if you’re talking about something that’s in twilight, “zone” is a pretty obvious choice. ---
**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2017, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/18 "2017-05-04T22:17:49Z")
Here’s the paragraph from _The Twilight Zone Companion:_ > [@](#): > > Asked how he came up with the title _The Twilight Zone_, Serling said, “I thought I’d made it up, but I’ve heard since that there is an Air Force term relating to a moment when a plane is coming down on approach and it cannot see the horizon. It’s called the twilight zone, but it’s an obscure term which I had not heard before.” ---
**Author:** ![JWT\_Kottekoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@JWT\_Kottekoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JWT_Kottekoe)\ **Post date:** [May 5, 2017, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-twilight-zone/358953/19 "2017-05-05T01:54:04Z")
It was surprising to me that the use of the term in books did not go up in 1959. According to [Google NGram Viewer](https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=twilight+zone&year_start=1800&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=1&share=&direct_url=t1%3B%2Ctwilight%20zone%3B%2Cc0), it’s been relatively flat since 1920 with a spike upward during WWII.