nebulous
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nebulous
- /ˈnɛbjʊləs/ UK, US
Where it comes from
Inherited from Middle English nebulous, from Middle French nebuleus, from Latin nebulōsus (“full of mist, foggy, cloudy”), from nebula (“mist, vapour, cloud”), from Proto-Indo-European *nébʰos (“cloud, vapor, fog, moist, sky”). By surface analysis, nebula + -ous. More at neveling, nuel.
Cognates
* Ancient Greek νέφος (néphos, “cloud”)
* German Nebel
** Old High German nebul (“cloud, fog”)
* Old English nifol, neowol (“dark, gloomy, obscure, precipitous, prone”)
adjective more nebulous · most nebulous
- In the form of a cloud or haze; hazy. An electric lantern flashed out and centred its circle of brilliance on the stairs opposite. Its radiance pierced the nebulous balloon of violet smoke that was rising to the roof and brought out every detail of the wall beyond.
- Vague or ill-defined. The magistrate could not possibly, on the evidence, have held them for a higher court. On the one hand the compositors and pressmen were forced to admit that the light was uncertain, that they were themselves much perturbed, and that it was difficult for them to swear to the identity of the assailan
- Relating to a nebula or nebulae.
Similar: cloudish, cloudlike, cloudly, cloudy, foggy, foglike, fumid, hazed, hazy, infumated, mistlike, misty
