• penumbra •
Printable Version Pronunciation: pen-nêm-brê • Hear it!
Part of Speech: Noun
Meaning: 1. The edge of a shadow which is shady but brighter than the center of the shadow, especially the shadow (umbra) of an eclipse. 2. The outer region of anything that is not as pronounced as the center, a gray area.
Notes: Today's Good Word is very liberal in its choice of forms. It sports two adjectives, penumbral and penumbrous; take your pick. You may also take your pick of the plurals: penumbrae or penumbras. It is a very relaxed word, as you would expect of a word that is always in the shade.
In Play: Between eclipses, this word is used mostly to refer to metaphoric shadows, perhaps lighter ones: "Vadim made every effort not to allow Beryl to fall into the shadow of his gregarious personality but, still, she felt her self somewhat in his penumbra when they appeared in public."
Word History: 
New Latin penumbra based on Old Latin paene "almost" + umbra "shadow". That umbra is the same one you see in umbrella, a device originally designed to protect the lovely white skin of European ladies from the rays of the sun. That is also it in umbrage, which now means "offense" as much as "shade", as does its lovely adjectives umbrageous "shady; offensive". paene can also be found in penultimate "next to last" as in the penultimate syllable of a word, and penultimatum, the ultimatum in which you threaten an ultimatum.
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