Word of the Day

: July 22, 2011

adumbrate

verb AD-um-brayt

What It Means

1 : to foreshadow vaguely : intimate

2 : to suggest, disclose, or outline partially

3 : overshadow, obscure

adumbrate in Context

In her second book, the author developed ideas that she had only adumbrated in her first work.

"Some of Shakespeare's other early comedies came even closer to adumbrating certain features of Romeo and Juliet: notably, The Two Gentlemen of Verona, with its locale, its window scene, its friar and rope, its betrothal and banishment, its emphasis upon the vagaries of love." -- From an essay by Sara Munson Deats in the 2010 guide Romeo and Juliet

Did You Know?

You aren't likely to find "adumbrate" in children's stories or on the sports pages. That's not because this shady word is somehow off-color, but rather because it tends to show up most often in academic or political writing. In fact, some usage commentators find it too hard for "ordinary" use (although they are hard-pressed to define "ordinary"). Art and literary critics have long found it useful, and it's a definite candidate for those oft-published "lists of words you should know" (especially for vocabulary tests). You might remember "adumbrate" better if you know that it developed from the Latin verb "adumbrare," which in turn comes from "umbra," the Latin word for "shadow." To "adumbrate," then, is to offer a shadowy view of something.