Wednesday, January 28, 2009

New Word (Don't Look it up Yet)

I came across a word yesterday I've never heard. While it's English, I found it on the blog of my French friend, Isabelle. She has better English than most Americans, and actually taught English Lit at Duke several years ago. She is still in her late 20s and has her PhD.

But I digress.

The word she used is adumbrated. Don't look it up. Just tell me which of the following definitions you think it is (or know it is):


Adumbrate (verb) means:

1. to make clear
2. to consolidate
3. to foreshadow
4. to silence or cancel

I think my sidebar poll will have a new word now and then. That'd be fun for some of you fellow word birds out there.

4 comments:

Amy said...

gosh, that's a hard one! I'm guessing #3. now I have to go look it up.

"word bird" sounds so much nicer than "word nerd" :)

Karen said...

my guess is #4 just b/c of the A in the beginning normally means without.

Anonymous said...

I'm thinking it is three or four, but leaning more towards three.

Zoanna said...

It's 3.