Setting, I think, a new Wordcraft record for the longest time between posing a problem and posting the candidates:

OBNUBILATED means

1. Rendered unmarriageable

2. Disoriented through drink

3. Having attained full puberty

4. Clouded; cf obfuscate

5. Disguised as an old woman

6. Navigated through clouds or mist

7. Twisted, as when dancing or performing gymnastics

8. Metastasized

I know the right answer but the big question is have I chosen that one or deliberately chosen a wrong answer to mislead you? I choose 2.

No idea. #6 for no reason at all.

4.

The three chosen answers so far are 2,4 and 6. Someone choose 8 please then we can have "2,4,6,8 who do we obnubilate"

OK you convinced me.
#8 it is.

Shoot - I gave up and looked it up myself. Sorry about that!

We've been missing you, Hab. Not many of us here these days, but we're mighty!

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:


We've been missing you, Hab. Not many of us here these days, but we're mighty!

Mighty? Not me, I'mm puny, but I keep trying.

It's funny (funny-odd, not funny-humorous) but I've been spending less time on the computer ever since I got my Apple watch. I'll figure that out someday.

Anyway, as many of you know by now, the right answer is "Obscured, clouded." I came across it most recently rereading Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy, describing mountains obscured by haze and clouds. Any licentious connotations seem to have come from using it to describe a desirable/available/fertile Young Person's body covered by veils, leaving the particulars to the viewers' imagination, and the desirability part eventually came to predominate in the listeners' associations with the word.

Stephenson seems to enjoy using obscure/obsolete words.

Should someone post another?

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:
It's funny (funny-odd, not funny-humorous) but I've been spending less time on the computer ever since I got my Apple watch.

You've been hanging out with Granny Smith?

Well, that was interesting! It got me etymonlining. To belabor the obvious for all you smartypants, here’s what I found:

Obnubilare/ p.p. obnibulatus = to darken, cloud, overcloud; noun nubes = cloud, verb nubilare; PIE sneudh = fog (see nuance)

Nubile is from nubere = to take as husband (see nuptial)

Here’s the connection: Latin nubere means “to cover, veil”. But when you use it with dative case, it means “to marry”.

Good job, B35!

quote:

Originally posted by haberdasher:
Stephenson seems to enjoy using obscure/obsolete words.

Thanks, Hab. I’ll have to check him out.

Unless, perhaps, I can persuade you to write up a write up a theme of “Stephenson words”?