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nebulous: msg#00014culture.language.word-of-the-day
***************************************************************** The word's out! Find more than 10,000 new words and meanings in the new 11th Edition of the Collegiate Dictionary! http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/book.pl?c11.htm&1 ***************************************************************** The Word of the Day for May 15 is: nebulous \NEH-byuh-lus\ adjective 1 : of, relating to, or resembling a nebula : nebular *2 : indistinct, vague Example sentence: Tia's nebulous description of the novel led her teacher to suspect that she hadn't read past the book jacket. Did you know? "Nebulous" comes from the Latin word "nebulosus," meaning "misty," which in turn comes from "nebula," meaning "mist," "fog," or "cloud." In the 18th century, English speakers borrowed "nebula" and gave it a somewhat more specific meaning than the Latin version. In English "nebula" refers to a cloud of gas or dust in deep space, or in less technical contexts, refers simply to a galaxy. "Nebulous" itself, when it doesn't have interstellar implications, usually means "cloudy" or "foggy" in a figurative sense. One's memory of a long-past event, for example, will often be nebulous. A teenager might give a nebulous recounting of his evening upon coming home. Or a politician might make a campaign promise but give only a nebulous description of how he would fulfill it. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. |
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