Emily Dickinson Lexicon

eclipse (-s), n. [OFr < L. < Gk 'to forsake its accustomed place, fail to appear'.] (webplay: earth, darkness, life, star, sun, whole).

1. Intervention; intercession; transcendence; change in perspective; obscuring from the mind as if from the eye.
2. Obscurity; total darkness; absence of light; [fig.] death.
3. Darkening of the sun when its light is temporarily blocked by the moon.
4. Astronomy event; passage of a body that overshadows the appearance of another.