obscure

Meanings

1. 1
   adj

   Not known by many people.

   The film is based on an obscure novel from the 1920s.

2. 2
   adj

   Difficult to understand.

   The instructions were so obscure that nobody could follow them.

3. 3
   verb

   To make something hard to see, understand, or notice.

   Thick clouds obscured the top of the mountain.

Simplified etymology

Obscure entered English through Middle French obscure from Latin obscurus. The Latin word primarily meant “dark,” but it also covered ideas such as being dim, hidden, unclear, incomprehensible, uncertain, undistinguished, or insignificant. These overlapping senses shaped the word’s range of meanings in English.

From Middle English obscure, from Old French obscur, from Latin obscūrus (“dark, dusky, indistinct”), from ob- + *scūrus, from Proto-Italic *skoiros, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃-. Doublet of oscuro.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary