obscurity

Etymology

It is borrowed from Anglo-Norman obscurité and Middle French obscurité,^[2][3][4][5] and directly borrowed from Latin obscūritās (“darkness, dimness, lack of clarity”),^[2][6][3][5] from obscūrus (“dark”) and the suffix -tās.^[2][3] Etymonline also allows a formation in English from obscure and -ity.^[6] The French word is recorded from 1119, as obscurtez,^[2] and the Anglo-Norman form oscurté, from the early 12th century, already meant darkness, gloom, spiritual darkness, an enigma and a lack of clarity.^[7] The Latin adjective is formed from ob- (“over”) and -scūrus (“covered”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)keu- (“to cover, conceal”).^[6][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The condition of not being clearly known or understood: 1474, in Caxton's translation of the Game and Playe of the Chesse.^[2] Its use for darkness, the absence of light, follows in 1481, in Caxton's Myrrour of the Worlde,^[2] and Etymonline gives this as the first sense, from the late 15th century.^[6] Merriam-Webster dates the word to the 14th century.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The English senses follow the French ones, which the OED dates in French to about 1265 for a lack of clarity, 1305 for unintelligibility and 1640 for the condition of being unknown.^[2] In English an obscurity was an obscure point or passage from 1495, and the word meant a lack of clarity in expression from before 1522, in Gavin Douglas's Aeneid.^[2][4] A figurative sense, a lack of spiritual understanding, was used from about 1485 to 1529.^[2] The sense of being unknown or unimportant is recorded from 1578 in the OED;^[2] Etymonline dates it to the 1610s.^[6] Johnson (1755) gave "darkness; want of light" as the first meaning.^[9] From 1822 the word could also denote an obscure or unknown person, and in recent use a thing, such as a musical recording, that has fallen into obscurity.^[2]

Timeline

• 1474 – the condition of not being clearly known or understood.^[2]
• 1481 – absence of light, darkness.^[2]
• c. 1485 – figurative, lack of spiritual understanding (obsolete by 1529).^[2]
• 1495 – an obscure point or passage.^[2]
• before 1522 – lack of clarity in expression.^[2]
• 1578 – the condition of being unknown or unimportant.^[2] Etymonline dates this sense to the 1610s.^[6]
• 1612 – something not known or understood, usually in the plural.^[2]
• 1822 – an obscure or unknown person.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being unknown, inconspicuous or unimportant: After one hit song the band sank back into obscurity.^{[10][3][2][4]}
2. Lack of clarity in expression; difficulty of understanding: the obscurity of his later essays.^[3][2][4]
3. An obscure point or passage, or an obscure person or thing: a record collector who hunts for obscurities.^[3][10][2]
4. Darkness or dimness; absence of light.^[2][4][9]

Word family

• nonobscurity

Related words

• obscure

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
6. ^ a b c d e f Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Anglo-Norman Dictionary (AND2), Aberystwyth University, anglo-norman.net (2nd ed., 2005–)
8. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
9. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins