umbratilous

English

Etymology

From Latin umbra (“shade, shadow”).

Adjective

umbratilous (comparative more umbratilous, superlative most umbratilous)

1. (rare, obsolete) Shadowy; faint; secluded; indistinct; vague; latent; indeterminate.
   • 1640 [1638], Francis Bacon, translated by Gilbert Wat[t]s, Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning, or the Partitions of Sciences, translation of De Augmentis Scientiarum (in New Latin), published 1674:

     For the handling of Final Causes the Physicks, hath intercepted, and banisht the enquiry of Physical causes; and hath given men occasion to rest satisfied in such specious, and umbratilous Causes; and not thorowly to urge and press the enquiry of real and truly Physical Causes.

   • 1863 September, “Thomas de Quincey”, in The Atlantic Monthly, volume 12, page 356:

     […] and should doubtless do our best, through horrid yells and tintinnabulations, towards getting up a tremendous counter-irritation upon the earth that should tell mightily on the nerves of this umbratilous tiger in the heavens.