Emily Dickinson Lexicon

E'QUI-NOX, n. [L. æquus, equal, and nox, night.]

The precise time when the sun enters one of the equinoctial points, or the first point of Aries, about the 21st of March, and the first point of Libra, ahout the 23d of September, making the day and the night of equal length. These are called the vernal and autumnal equinoxes. These points are found to be moving backward or westward, at the rate of 50" of a degree in a year. This is called the precession of the equinoxes. Encyc.