what does equinox mean in Latin?

Answer 1

equalling night, i.e., the two days out of the year when daytime and nighttime are approximately of equal duration.

Answer 2

Equinox is not a Latin word - it's English. It's derived from the Latin word 'aequinoctium', which means 'equinox'. An equinox happens twice a year - around March 20 and around September 22 when the length of daytime is almost exactly the same as length of night.

Answer 3

Other answers about equal day and night, and sun being over equator are right, but I'll give some more detail as that might not cover it for you. The earth goes around the sun on a plane called the ecliptic. The polar axis of the earth is not perpendicular to that plane. This also means that the plane of the earth's equator is inclined to the ecliptic. The polar axis of the earth tilts 23.5 degrees off of perpendicular to the plane of its orbit. This is what causes the seasons. The earth's polar tilt always points in the same direction in space, so the sun will appear more north or more south depending on the time of year. So picture a point where the polar tilt is neither away from or toward the sun. IOW, a line from the center of the earth to the center of the sun would go right through the earth's equator. That happens at two points in the orbit, on opposite sides of the sun. Those are the equinoxes. That's what's meant by the sun being over the equator. And that's the point where the terminator, (the line between day and night, goes through the poles, making day and night of equal length.

Answer 4

Latins loved to put several words together, squash them up and make one word from it. That's the case with EQUINOX. EQUI means EQUAL, OF SAME VALUE (either length or time or any other value in general), and NOX means NIGHT. Hence, the whole word means SAME NIGHT LENGTH, because the Latins noticed that on those 2 days the daytime length was equal to the nightime length. Usually that's how it works for words coming from Latin.