“equinox”, not “equinox”

by time news

the spelling equinoxwith two C’s, no equinociois appropriate for the name of the moment in which the length of day and night is the same throughout the Earth.

However, it is common to find in the media phrases such as “It occurs on dates prior to the spring equinox”, “The town welcomes the autumn equinox with various activities” or “The length of the days will be equal to that of the nights on the spring equinox.

According to the academic dictionary, equinox is written with two C’s and it is ‘each of the two annual moments in which, because the Sun is on the equator, the duration of day and night is the same throughout the Earth, which occurs from March 20 to 21 and from March 22 to September 23’.

Thus, in the previous examples, the appropriate thing would have been to write “It occurs on dates prior to the spring equinox”, “The town welcomes the autumn equinox with various activities” and “The duration of the days will be equal to that of the nights on the spring equinox.

Finally, it should be noted that it is not necessary to use equinox to refer to the season that begins, as in “The spring equinox ends with the summer solstice”, where it would have been advisable to say “The spring season ends with the summer solstice” or, simply, “Spring ends with the summer solstice.”

The post «equinoccio», no «equinocio» first appeared on FundéuRAE.

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