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Feb 12, 2010

This week's theme
Verbs

This week's words
castigate
disport
prevaricate
affranchise
obnubilate

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Words from London

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A.Word.A.Day

with Anu Garg

obnubilate

PRONUNCIATION:

(ob-NOO-buh-layt, -NYOO-)

MEANING:

verb tr.: To cloud over, obscure, or darken.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin obnubilare (to darken or obscure), from ob- (in the way) + nubilare (to be cloudy), from nubes (cloud). The word nuance is also a derivative of nubes.

USAGE:

"In the room which Monsieur [Jacques Parizeau] vacated so suddenly, the 'body odour of race', to quote Montreal poet A.M. Klein, will continue to obnubilate until a window breaks."
Peter Reimann; Monsieur's Lapse; The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada); Nov 3, 1995.

See more usage examples of obnubilate in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority. -Thomas Henry Huxley, biologist (1825-1895)

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