obnubilation

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin obnūbilātiō.

Pronunciation

Noun

obnubilation (countable and uncountable, plural obnubilations)

  1. The action of darkening or fact of being darkened, as with a cloud; obscuration. [1610]
    • 1610, John Healey (tr.), St. Auguſtine, of the Citie of God: with the learned Comments of Io. Lod. Vives, bk 3, ch. 15, pp. 127–8, note e:
      Neither can the Moone be eclipſed but at her ful, and in her fartheſt poſture from the ſunne: then is ſhe proſtitute to obnubilation.
    • 1653, Edward Waterhouse, An humble apologie for learning and learned men, p. 175:
      Let then others glory in their triumphs, and trophies, in their obnubilation of bodies coruscant, that they have brought fear upon Champions, forced contributions from the Herculesses of manhood.
    • 1819, Felix MacDonogh, The Hermit in London II, p. 133:
      Fog and sunshine, obnubilation and light.
    • 1951, Abraham Moses Klein (aut.), E.A. Popham and Z. Pollock (eds.), The Second Scroll (2000), gloss dalid (ר), p. 95:
      Let no dark // Obnubilations of salesmen dim the day // Lit by your contract, which is clear, as though it were // A lamp.
    • 1989, Charles Doyle, Richard Aldington: A Biography, ch. 11, p. 146:
      In 1931 these and other obnubilations…were over the horizon and he gave a set of proofs of The Colonel’s Daughter to Douglas.
  2. (medicine, specifically) Obscuration or clouding of the mind or faculties. [1753]
  3. (rare, literally) A veiling with or concealment in clouds. [1814]
    • 1814 Jan. 15th, “Foggiana” in The Spirit of the Public Journals for 1814 (1815), p. 23:
      Homer, the father of the Poets, by these obnubilations, frequently rescues his heroes from the most imminent danger. Thus, in the third book of The Iliad, when Paris, defeated by Menelaus, is on the point of losing his life, Venus snatches him away in a fog: — // “Then, as once more he lifts the deadly dart, // In thirst of vengeance, at his rival’s heart, // The Queen of Love her fav’rite champion shrouds // (For Gods can all things) in a veil of clouds.
  4. Something that obscures or causes confoundment; an obfuscation. [1999]
    • 1999, Balachandra Rajan, Under Western Eyes: India from Milton to Macaulay, Afterword, p. 206:
      Pound’s ugly invective about the “obnubilations” of Indian art.
    • 2009, Chris J. Ackerley, Watt, Preface:
      The problem of error is crucial, for as Watt interrogates the foundations of rational inquiry, the distinctions between intended errors, authorial errors, mistakes introduced by publishers, changes of intention and other obnubilations loom all the larger.
    • 2016, Roger Paulin, The Life of August Wilhelm Schlegel, Cosmopolitan of Art and Poetry, § 2.1.2, p. 79:
      Philosophy was wreathed in Fichtean obnubilations.

Translations

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References


French

Etymology

Inherited from the Middle French obnubilation.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): [ɔb.ny.bi.la.sjɔ̃]
  • (file)

Noun

obnubilation f (plural obnubilations)

  1. (medicine, obsolete) perception of objects as if seen through a cloud, dazzlement, obnubilation [1858]
  2. (medicine) a disorder of consciousness characterised by slowed and obscured thought, obnubilation [1926]
  3. (in the etymological sense) the state of being covered with clouds or fog, obnubilation [1936]

Synonyms

  • (perception of objects as if seen through a cloud, dazzlement, obnubilation): vertige m

References


Middle French

Etymology

Borrowed from Late Latin obnūbilātiō.

Noun

obnubilation f (plural obnubilations)

  1. clouding of the mind, obscuration of the mental faculties, obnubilation [1486]

Descendants

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