Wednesday, June 22, 2011

abstruse



abstruse [æbˈstrus] a.

1.) Remote from apprehension or conception; difficult, recondite.
2.) Concealed, hidden, secret. Obsolete (O.E.D. 2nd Ed.).

Etymology: Latin abstrusus, past participle of abstrudere, to hide: abs-, ab-, away + trudere, to push.

"It is impossible, that this inference of the animal can be founded on any process of argument or reasoning, by which he concludes, that like events must follow like objects, and that the course of nature will always be regular in its operations. For if there be in reality any arguments of this nature, they surely lie too abstruse for the observation of such imperfect understandings; since it may well employ the utmost care and attention of a philosophic genius to discover and observe them" (An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, David Hume, 1748).

(Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, ~1597)

30 comments:

Astronomy Pirate said...

Interesting, I have heard the word a few times, but never really put much thought into the meaning before.

PeaceLoveandSharpies said...

This word comes up in every freaking SAT word list...

You know what would be super fun if you did it on your blog?
If like at the end of the week, you had a contest to see who could write the most creative/amusing paragraph using the words you posted that week.
And then you'd announce a winner.
I'd totes do that. Twould help my vocab even more. :3

DEZMOND said...

ah, this one I knew :) Nice pic again, E (Enio, Emanuel, Elf, Elton, Erol?) :)

menshans said...

I love the pic!

Avery_Goodgame said...

A new word a day?
Win blog.
Followed.

Unknown said...

Good thing this post wasn't abstrusive. ..am I doing it right? lol

Unknown said...

This word wasn't quite as abstruse as your usual haha

Dear Girl Wallflower said...

great info, I just also knew that Pax means peace..thanks for dropping by my blog.
- your new ff-wer

Brandon Sample said...

that painting is intense, I really like it.

Zombie said...

old school paintings like that are so cool!!

Bunny Hill said...

This blog could definitively help my poor grammar

MRanthrope said...

I plan on using this one from now on just to mess with people.

Anonymous said...

Great word and the example sentence was perfect!

Mr. Cactus said...

I always forget the first "S" when spelling abstruse.

Simon black said...

Interesting, cool painting too btw.

Meri said...

I'm having a hard time getting my mouth to say this one, its hard!

Bart said...

now that i think of it he very well could have been, but i took off pretty quick.

Unknown said...

Nice word. I also have the urge to read the David Hume book. I haven't read any books on philosophy for some time.

Fang said...

Abstruse kind of sounds a little bit like absent, so the second definition makes sense, sort of..

JayPower said...

Never heard anyone i know say this, gonna try nd use it today ;D

Intraman said...

I liked the contest idea proposed in another comment above, it could be pretty fun

Drake Sigar said...

O, o, I knew this one! *Dances*

netw said...

your blog is really helping me to improve my english. Thanks

Anonymous said...

I love cool words; nice picture as well.

T. Banacek said...

This is a new one for me. It's like abstract and obtuse had a kid.

Chain said...

I got a bit confused reading all this :O

Thiago said...

Nice one.

Salted Plum said...

Nice word, as always.

A Beer for the Shower said...

As a homebody, that second definition describes me quite nicely, as I am both hidden and obsolete.

M Pax said...

The obsolete meaning is interesting.

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