English

Adjective

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

1. (obsolete) Concealed or hidden out of the way; secret. [Attested from the late 16^th century until the mid 18^th century.]^[1]
   • 1612, Thomas Shelton, chapter 15, in The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha, translation of original by Miguel de Cervantes, part 4, page 500:

     O who is he that could carrie newes to our olde father, that thou wert but aliue, although thou wert hidden in the most abstruse dungeons of Barbarie; for his riches, my brothers and mine would fetch thee from thence.

   • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost:

     The eternal eye whose sight discerns abstrusest thoughts.

2. Difficult to comprehend or understand; recondite; obscure; esoteric. [First attested in the late 16^th century.]^[1]
   • 1548, Bishop John Hooper, “Curiosity”, in A Declaration of the Ten Holy Comaundementes of Almygthye God, page 218:

     […] at the end of his cogitacions, fyndithe more abstruse, and doutfull obiections then at the beginning […]

   • 1748, David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral., London: Oxford University Press, published 1973, 13:

     It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abstruse; […]

   • 1855, Henry Hart Milman, History of Latin Christianity:

     Profound and abstruse topics.

Usage notes

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

Derived terms

• abstrusely
• abstruseness

Related terms

• abstrude
• abstrusion

Translations

References

1. 1 2 3 Lesley Brown (editor), The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 5th edition (Oxford University Press, 2003 [1933], ISBN 978-0-19-860575-7), page 10
2. ↑ Philip Babcock Gove (editor), Webster's Third International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged (G. & C. Merriam Co., 1976 [1909], ISBN 0-87779-101-5), page 8
3. ↑ Laurence Urdang (editor), The Random House College Dictionary (Random House, 1984 [1975], ISBN 0-394-43600-8), page 7

French

Adjective

abstruse

1. feminine singular of abstrus

Anagrams

• arbustes

German

Adjective

abstruse

1. inflected form of abstrus

Latin

Participle

abstrūse

1. vocative masculine singular of abstrūsus

References

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