/ˈɡloʊm.taɪd/
noun · etym: anglo-noemic · gloam- (twilight) + -tide (time, season) · cf. eventide, yuletide
the inward turn the day takes around 4 pm in winter.
gloamtide is not a duration but a verb the day performs upon itself. it is the hour at which the world appears to draw breath and then keep that breath inside. dusk is a place; gloamtide is the motion toward it.
one feels it as a slight tilt — as though the floor of the day has been lifted an inch on one side. work undertaken in gloamtide takes longer than work begun before it. letters written during gloamtide arrive at their recipients more slowly and are more often re-read. the four am visitor knows the same tilt in mirror, on the other side of the night.
in a sentence: "i lost the afternoon to gloamtide; by the time i looked up the kettle had gone cold twice."