ADUMBRATION

adumbration

(noun) a sketchy or imperfect or faint representation

prefiguration, foreshadowing, adumbration

(noun) the act of providing vague advance indications; representing beforehand

Source: WordNet® 3.1

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Etymology

Noun

adumbration (countable and uncountable, plural adumbrations)

(uncountable) The state of being in shadow or shade; (countable) a shadow.

Synonyms: shading, shadowing

(countable) A faint sketch; a brief representation, an outline.

(specifically, heraldry) The outline of a charge (“image displayed on an escutcheon”), sometimes filled in with a darker shade than the field.

(countable, uncountable, figuratively) A rough or symbolic representation; a vague indication of what is to come, a foreshadowing.

(countable, philosophy, specifically phenomenology) The form of an object as seen by an observer.

Usage notes

Sense 4 is particularly associated with the work of the German philosopher Edmund Husserl (1859–1938).

Source: Wiktionary

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Ad`um*bra"tion, n. Etym: [L. adumbratio.]

1. The act of adumbrating, or shadowing forth.

2. A faint sketch; an outline; an imperfect portrayal or representation of a thing. Elegant adumbrations of sacred truth. Bp. Horsley.

3. (Her.)

Definition: The shadow or outlines of a figure.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition

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