different between recondite vs abstruse

English

Etymology

The adjective is derived from Latin reconditus (“concealed, hidden; difficult to understand, unintelligible; shy, withdrawn”), perfect passive participle of recond? (“to conceal, hide; to put away; to re-establish, put back”) + -tus (suffix forming adjectives having the sense ‘provided with’). Recond? is derived from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + cond? (“to conceal, hide; to put away, store; to put together; to build, establish; to fashion, form”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *d?eh?- (“to do, make; to place, put”)). The English word is cognate with Catalan recòndit (“hidden; private”), Italian recondito (“hidden, recondite”), Middle French recondit (“hidden; secret”), Portuguese recôndito (“hidden, secluded; isolated, remote”), Spanish recóndito (“hidden, recondite”).

The noun is probably derived from the adjective.

The verb is derived from Latin recondere, the present active infinitive of recond?; see above.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???k(?)n?da?t/, /???k?nda?t/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???k?n?da?t/, /???k?n?da?t/, /?i?k?n?da?t/
• Hyphenation: re?cond?ite

Adjective

recondite (comparative more recondite, superlative most recondite)

1. (of areas of discussion or research) Difficult, obscure.
   1. Difficult to grasp or understand; abstruse, profound.
   2. Little known; esoteric, secret.
   3. (of scholars) Having mastery over one's field, including its esoteric minutiae; learned.
   4. (of writers) Deliberately employing abstruse or esoteric allusions or references; intentionally obscure.
      • 1788, Vicesimus Knox, Winter Evenings, II. v. i. 109

        They afford a lesson to the modern metaphysical and recondite writers not to overvalue their works.

      • 2004 Autumn, American Scholar, 129

        The voices of recondite writers quoted at length, forgotten storytellers weaving narratives, obscure scholars savaging one another.

2. (somewhat archaic) Hidden or removed from view.
   • 1649, John Bulwer, Pathomyotomia, ii. ii. 108

     The Eye is somewhat recondit betweene its Orbite.

   • 1796, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Letters, I. 209

     My recondite eye sits distent quaintly behind the flesh-hill, and looks as little as a tomtit's.

   • 1823, Charles Lamb, Old Benchers in Elia, 190

     The young urchins,... not being able to guess at its recondite machinery, were almost tempted to hail the wondrous work as magic.

   • 1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Canoe Speaks" in Underwoods

     ...following the recondite brook,

     Sudden upon this scene I look,

     And light with unfamiliar face

     On chaste Diana's bathing-place

   • 2002, Nick Tosches, In the Hand of Dante, 253

     Silent calligraphy sounds that were like those of the sweet fluent water of a recondite stream.

   1. (botany, entomology, obsolete, rare, of a structure) Difficult to see, especially because it is hidden by another structure.
      • 1825, Thomas Say, Say's Entomol., Glossary, 28

        Recondite, (aculeus) concealed within the abdomen, seldom exposed to view.

   2. (chiefly zoology, rare) Avoiding notice (particularly human notice); having a tendency to hide; shy.

      Synonym: retiring

      • 1835, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 125, 361

        Animals of this class are so recondite in their habits... so little known to naturalists beyond the more common species.

Derived terms

• reconditely
• reconditeness

Translations

Noun

recondite (plural recondites)

1. (rare) A recondite (hidden or obscure) person or thing.
2. (rare) A scholar or other person who is recondite, that is, who has mastery over his or her field, including its esoteric minutiae.

Verb

recondite (third-person singular simple present recondites, present participle reconditing, simple past and past participle recondited)

1. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To conceal, cover up, hide.

References

Further reading

• recondite at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• centeroid, decretion, red notice, tenrecoid

Italian

Adjective

recondite

1. feminine plural of recondito

Anagrams

• condirete, decretino, intercedo

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /re?kon.di.te/, [r??k?n?d??t??]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /re?kon.di.te/, [r??k?n?d?it??]

Verb

recondite

1. second-person plural present active imperative of recond?

English

Etymology

From French abstrus or its source, Latin abstr?sus (“hidden, concealed”), the perfect passive participle of abstr?d? (“conceal, to push away”), itself from ab, abs (“away”) + tr?d? (“thrust, push”). Cognate with German abstrus.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?st?u?s/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /æb?st?us/, /?b-/
• Rhymes: -u?s
• Hyphenation: ab?struse

Adjective

abstruse (comparative abstruser or more abstruse, superlative abstrusest or most abstruse)

1. Difficult to comprehend or understand. [from late 16th c.]

   Synonyms: esoteric, obscure, recondite
2. (obsolete) Concealed or hidden out of the way; secret. [from late 16th c. until mid 18th c.]

Usage notes

More abstruse and most abstruse are the preferred forms over abstruser and abstrusest.

Synonyms

• (concealed): clandestine, secret, surreptitious; See also Thesaurus:covert
• (difficult to comprehend): esoteric, obscure, recondite; See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

Derived terms

• abstrusely
• abstruseness

Translations

References

Further reading

• abstruse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• abstruse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Staubers, Straubes, surbates, surbeats

French

Adjective

abstruse

1. feminine singular of abstrus

Anagrams

• arbustes

German

Adjective

abstruse

1. inflection of abstrus:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Latin

Participle

abstr?se

1. vocative masculine singular of abstr?sus

References

• abstruse in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press