adumbration

Noun

adumbration (countable and uncountable, plural adumbrations)

1. (uncountable) The state of being in shadow or shade; (countable) a shadow.
   • If it be true, that there is a Firſt Being who has drawn or created all the reſt from nothing, man is truly his image; [...]. But an image, is but an image ſtill, and can be but an adumbration or ſhadow of the true perfect Being.1755, [François] Fénelon, “Sect. XXX. Of Man.”, in A[bel] Boyer, transl., A Demonstration of the Existence and Attributes of God, Drawn from the Knowledge of Nature. … Translated from the French...
   • [O]ne of these, [...] seems to have felt some irritation at the obscurity of certain terms not well understood, being in the Latin, or the Greek language, or derived from thence; so that not being able to get at the root, he could not comprehend the stem of the tree; nor enjoy the adumbration of...1819, H[ugh] H[enry] Brackenridge, chapter I, in Modern Chivalry: Containing the Adventures of a Captain and Teague O’Regan, His Servant. […], volume II, Pittsburgh, Pa.: Published by R. Patterson &...

   Synonyms:

   shading, shadowing

2. (countable) A faint sketch; a brief representation, an outline.
   • There is another Difference of Sounds, which wee call Exteriour, and Interiour. [...] Wee ſhall therefore enumerate them, rather than preciſely diſtinguiſh them; Though (to make ſome Adumbration of that wee meane) the Interiour is rather an Impulſion or Contuſion of the Aire, than an Eliſion or...1631, Francis [Bacon], “II. Century. [Experiments in Consort Touching Exteriour, and Interiour Sounds.]”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […]...
   • For almoſt in all ſenſible Creatures, eſpecially thoſe of the more perfect kind, a certain Image or weak Adumbration of ſomething like Reaſon appears, yet we find no Creatures below Mankind any thing like Religion, or Veneration of a Deity: [...]1677, Matthew Hale, “The Fourth Instance of Fact Seeming to Evince the Novity of Mankind, Namely, the Inceptions of the Religions and Deities of the Heathens, and the Deficiency of this Instance”, in...
   1. (rare, specifically) The supposed practice of displaying only outline of a charge (“image displayed on an escutcheon”), sometimes filled in with a darker shade than the field.
      • ADUMBRATION, [in Heraldry] an abſolute taking avvay of the Charge or Thing born, ſo that nothing of it remains but the bare Proportion of the out Lines.[1721, N[athan] Bailey, “ADUMBRATION”, in An Universal Etymological English Dictionary: […], London: […] E. Bell, J. Darby, […], →OCLC, column 1
      • It is ſaid, that ſome [emblazoned shields] bore the outline or tracing only, inſtead of the armorial figures complete; becauſe, having loſt the ſeigniory, they retained only the ſhadow of their property and conſequence. In the ſtate of the practice of delineating coat armour in the fourteenth...1793, James Dallaway, “Sect. II”, in Inquiries into the Origin and Progress of the Science of Heraldry in England. With Explanatory Observations on Armorial Ensigns, Gloucester, Gloucestershire...
3. (figuratively) A rough or symbolic representation; a vague indication of what is to come, a foreshadowing.
   • [W]here there is an obſcurity too deep for our Reaſon, 'tis good to ſit down with a deſcription, periphraſis, or adumbration; for by acquainting our reaſon how unable it is to diſplay the viſible and obvious effects of nature, it becomes more humble and ſubmiſſive unto the ſubtilties of faith: [...]1669, Thomas Browne; Thomas Keck, annotator, Religio Medici. […], 6th corrected and amended edition, London: Printed by Ja[mes] Cotterel, for Andrew Crook, →OCLC, section 10, page 19
   • Now, no Prieſt was ſuffered to eat the Fleſh, or drink the Blood, of this Sacrifice, becauſe it was a myſtical Adumbration of a ſpiritual Feaſt above, [...]1767, Richard Clarke, The Gospel of the Daily-service of the Law, Preached to the Jew and Gentile, in an Explanation of that Grand Ritual, Comprehended in these Six Branches; […], London: Printed and...
4. (countable, specifically) The form of an object as seen by an observer.
   • Of necessity a physical thing can be given only "one-sidedly;" and that signifies, not just incompletely or imperfectly in some sense or other, but precisely what presentation by adumbrations prescribes.1983, Edmund Husserl, “Consciousness and Natural Actuality”, in F. Kersten, transl., Ideas Pertaining to a Pure Phenomenology and to a Phenomenological Philosophy: First Book: General Introduction to...
   • Just as the intentional horizon of the spatial object is made up of those adumbrations which would be implied were I to walk around the object and view it from different points of view, so the intentional horizon of the temporal object is made up of retentions and protensions.1991, Christopher Macann, “The Impossibility of a Phenomenological Constitution of the Flux of Inner Time Consciousness”, in Presence and Coincidence: The Transformation of Transcendental into...