Adumbrate is a formal word for giving a general idea or description of something without any details.

It has the following meanings:

• to outline
• to give a faint indication
• to foreshadow
• to overshadow or obscure

Adumbrate is a verb but there are other forms available to you: the noun is adumbration, the adjective is adumbrative and the adverb is adumbratively.

The OED lists the first recorded usage of adumbrate as occurring in 1537:

“You as fore runners, dydde adumbrate Christis passion.” Erasmus’ Comparation Vyrgin & Martyr, Thomas Paynell (translator).

I picked it as this week’s interesting word primarily because of its Latin origins. The Latin adumbrat- means ‘shaded’, and is from the verb adumbrare. Ad- means ‘to’ and umbrare means ‘cast a shadow’.