obnubilation
The action of darkening or fact of being darkened, as with a cloud; obscuration.
countable, uncountable
1610, John Healey (tr.), Sᵗ. Auguſtine, of the Citie of God: with the learned Comments of Io. Lod. Vives, bk 3, ch. 15, pp. 127–8, note e
Obscuration or clouding of the mind or faculties.
countable, uncountable
1753 Dec. 17th, John Rutty, A Spiritual Diary and Soliloquies in The Life of Samuel Johnſon, LL.D. (1791), aut. James Boswell, vol. II, “1777. Ætat. 68.”, p. 155
A veiling with or concealment in clouds.
countable, rare, uncountable
Homer, the father of the Poets, by these obnubilations, frequently rescues his heroes from the most imminent danger. Thus, in the third book of The Iliad, when Paris, defeated by Menelaus, is on the point of losing his life, Venus snatches him away in a fog: — // “Then, as once more he lifts the deadly dart, // In thirst of vengeance, at his rival’s heart, // The Queen of Love her fav’rite champion shrouds // (For Gods can all things) in a veil of clouds.”
Something that obscures or causes confoundment; an obfuscation.
countable, uncountable
1999, Balachandra Rajan, Under Western Eyes: India from Milton to Macaulay, Afterword, p. 206
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Late Latin obnūbilātiō. Compare brain fog as a similar metaphor. By surface analysis, obnubilate + -ion.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry obnubilation (CC BY-SA 4.0).