Past tense of adumbrate; to faintly suggest, outline, or sketch something without complete clarity; to prefigure or foreshadow.
From Latin 'adumbratus,' past participle of 'adumbrare.' Literally means 'shadowed' or 'sketched out,' used metaphorically for vague suggestions.
When scholars say an ancient text 'adumbrated' a modern idea, they mean it hinted at it without fully developing it—like how ancient philosophers 'adumbrated' evolutionary thinking centuries before Darwin made it explicit.
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