obscurantism

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   deliberate opposition to the spread of knowledge, education, reform, or public understanding

   The scholars condemned the ban as obscurantism designed to keep the evidence from readers.

2. 2
   noun

   the deliberate use of vague, needlessly difficult, or obscure language to prevent clear understanding

   Technical terminology became obscurantism when the report used it to conceal a simple conclusion.

Borrowed from French obscurantisme, built on Latin obscurans, the present participle of obscurare ("to darken, conceal"), + -ism. The political sense compares blocking knowledge with keeping people in darkness; the stylistic sense applies the same image to unclear expression.

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