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nebulous

ne·bu·lous

US/ˈnɛbjʊləs/ uncommon

adjective

1.

lacking definite form or limits

  • “gropes among cloudy issues toward a feeble conclusion” H.T.Moore
  • “nebulous distinction between pride and conceit”
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2.

lacking definition or definite content

  • “nebulous reasons”
  • “unfixed as were her general notions of what men ought to be” Jane Austen
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Origin

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”)

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WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.