The noun σκοτος (skotos) means darkness or gloom. In the Iliad, this word always describes the darkness of death. In other classics, this word could describe the darkness of the netherworld (or even the womb), or describe blindness, dizziness, obscurity or ignorance. The noun σκοτια (skotia) describes an instant of darkness (see below).

This word is also the same as the ethnonym Scotsman (spelled Σκωτος or alternatively σκοτος), possibly because of the notorious Scottish weather or long winters, and possibly because those who migrated there were considered rather dim by people who didn't. That this distinction may not be wholly fair, or even remotely true, is explained in the books How the Scots Invented the Modern World — The True Story of How Western Europe's Poorest Nation Created Our World & Everything in It, Arthur Herman, 2001, and When Scotland was Jewish — DNA evidence, Archeology, Analysis of Migrations, and Public and Family Records Show Twelfth Century Semitic Roots, Elizabeth Caldwell Hirshman and Donald N. Yates, 2007.

Our word σκοτος (skotos) stems from the Proto-Indo-European root "(s)keh-", meaning darkness or shadow (indeed, hence the English words shade and shadow).

Contrary to common perception, darkness is not the opposite of light but the absence of it. And since light and enlightenment go hand in hand, ignorance is also not the opposite of wisdom but the absence of it. And ultimately, hate is not the opposite of love but the absence of it.

Light is substantial, but darkness is not. Light comes from a source, but darkness does not. Light consists of colors, but darkness does not. Light conveys information, but darkness does not. Light (or more specifically: photonic energy) comes before all things and holds all things — all things; all material things, all living things and all societies — together (Colossians 1:17). Light gives life, and darkness does not. Light and darkness relate like fullness and emptiness, and both stem from the same Creator, namely YHWH, "the One forming light and creating darkness, causing peace (שלום, shalom) and creating evil (רע, ra')" (Isaiah 45:7).

Sometimes darkness is not the result of a thing being dark, but rather of an inability of an observer to recognize light (Matthew 10:27). If a source of light is hidden from view by blindness, the result is darkness. This makes our noun σκοτος (skotos) in some way related to the noun μυστηριον (musterion), or mystery: something hidden.

The Hebrew word for to flow (what a river does) is the same as for to shine (what a lamp does), namely נהר (nahar), which means that the ancients were aware of what later would be called Special Relativity.

Our noun σκοτος (skotos), meaning darkness, is used 32 times in the New Testament, see full concordance, and from it derive:

Like the above, the noun ζοφος (zophos) also means darkness or obscurity, specifically of the netherworld or of oblivion. It's slightly rarer than the above, but in the classics this word could likewise describe general darkness and gloom: of night (Od.3.335, 9.26, 10.190), winter, mood or fate.

In 2 Peter 2:17 and Jude 1:13 this noun ζοφος (zophos), obscurity, occurs in close proximity of the noun σκοτος (skotos), darkness (see above), so as to explain that obscurity is an aspect of darkness (darkness obscures but not all obscurity comes from darkness).

Notably, our noun ζοφος (zophos) could refer to the western or northern "obscure quarter" (Od.13.241), reached by flying "left" (Il.12.240) rather than "right" (δεξιος, dexios) toward the dawn (αυριον, aurion, hence names like Austria and Australia, the geographic opposite of Scotland; see above).

A term that is related to our noun is Ζεφυρος (Zephuros), Zephyrus, the deified and positive west wind (counterpart of the vilified Eurus, or east wind). But the origin of both these words is formally obscure.

Here at Abarim Publications we suspect that these words are ultimately Semitic, and were imported into Greek along with the alphabet. A root that immediately jumps to mind is צפה (sapa), to cover or to look out, and thus the verb צפן (sapan), to hide or store up, and the noun צפון (sapon), meaning north.

But this also implies that our noun declares not merely an absence of light, but rather a covering or even protecting, of something that is thus locally hidden from sight by some covering of sorts. That relates our word in essence to the familiar noun μυστηριον (musterion), meaning mystery, from the verb μυω (muo), to cover. Likewise the word "apocalypse", literally meaning discovery, comes from the verb καλυπτω (kalupto), to wrap or cover.

Our noun ζοφος (zophos), darkness, is used 4 times; see full concordance.