penumbrous

English

Etymology

From penumbra +‎ -ous.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /pɪˈnʌmbɹəs/

Adjective

penumbrous (comparative more penumbrous, superlative most penumbrous)

1. Partially shaded.

   the penumbrous calm of the cathedral interior

2. Vague; ill-defined; unclear.
   • 1951, Reginald Hargreaves, This Happy Breed: Sidelights on Soldiers and Soldiering, page 237:

     Yet such Commissions were awarded, and far more frequently than might be supposed in view of the infinitely wider gulf—both social and educational—which divided the eighteenth-century Officer from the rank and file, than the penumbrous border line which separates them today.

   • 1961, Gerard Smith, Lottie H. Kendzierski, The philosophy of being: Metaphysics I, page 326:

     Everyone knows God in his penumbrous knowledge of common esse.

   • 1982, Open Letter, page 119:

     This is that from which metaphor springs dissatisfying, penumbrous - the silence on occult matters, or those of predestination, of genetics or environment - and the source of circumlocution, the ambiguous alchemical directives.

   • 1992, James R. Cooper, Twilight's Last Gleaming: The Price of Happiness in America, page 39:

     In the early nineteenth century, when high school and college education was a rare experience for the average American citizen, judicial determination of vague, penumbrous fundamental rights was carried out by the educated classes.