adumbrations

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...

   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: […]...
   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
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
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...