Shrouded

Part of speech: adjective, verb

Definitions

1. Covered or concealed by something that prevents visibility or comprehension
2. Being enveloped or wrapped so that the original form is not visible
3. Concealed by a layer that obscures details and makes recognition difficult

Etymology: "Shrouded" is simply the past participle and adjective of "shroud," so its story is really the story of the noun it grows from. A shroud was originally a garment, and the Old English "scrūd" meant clothing or a covering in general, related to "scrēadian," to clothe or cover. The sense of a cloth wrapped around a dead body came later, and the word's associations with burial have never fully left it. From that base, the verb "shroud" came to mean to cover, conceal, or veil something, and the Middle English form "schrouded" gave us the participle that now describes anything hidden from view. A mountain lost in mist or a plot kept under secrecy is shrouded in the same way a body was once wrapped in cloth, so the word's sense of concealment comes straight from its oldest use as a covering.

Synonyms: concealed, covered, veiled, wrapped, cloaked

Antonyms: revealed, exposed, uncovered, displayed, shown