abstruso

Forms

abstruso (feminine abstrusa, masculine plural abstrusos, feminine plural abstrusas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin abstrūsus (“hidden, concealed”).^[2][1][3] The Latin adjective is the past participle of abstrūdō (“to push away; to hide”), formed from abs- and trūdō (“to push, thrust”).^[4][1][3] De Vaan derives the simple verb from Proto-Indo-European *treud- (“to push, thrust”) and compares Proto-Germanic *þreutaną.^[5]

The same learned word is French abstrus, Italian astruso and Catalan abstrús.^[6][7][8] The DHLF dates the French word 1149 and explains its sense “hard to understand” by its likeness to abstrait.^[6] intruso comes from another compound of the same Latin verb.^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first records are in the bilingual dictionaries of 1617: Oudin glosses it caché “hidden” and Minsheu “shut up, hidden, close, secret”.^[9] The first text the TDHLE quotes is Cascales's Cartas filológicas (a1626–1634): Lo intrincado, lo abstruso, lo improbo, lo verdaderamente trabajoso es sentenciar las causas “the intricate, the abstruse, the arduous, the truly laborious thing is to judge cases”.^[9] Corominas's first date is 1726.^[3]

Semantic evolution

In Guatemala in 1716 it described the remotest mountains, a physical sense of “hidden”.^[10] Feijoo called the art of medicine tan abstruso, tan arduo, tan difícil “so abstruse, so arduous, so difficult”, and the Academy quoted him in 1770, marking the word as little used and defining it as recondite, hard to enter or understand.^[9][11] Later editions kept only the sense of difficult understanding, and the 1884 edition gave the Latin etymology “hidden”.^[12][13] The DLE and Moliner today define it as hard to understand.^[2][14]

Timeline

• 1617 – Oudin and Minsheu record the word in their dictionaries.^[9]
• 1620 – Franciosini glosses it in Italian as “hidden”.^[9]
• a1626–1634 – Cascales uses it in his Cartas filológicas.^[9]
• 1716 – first record in the Americas, in Guatemala.^[10]
• 1726 – Corominas's first date.^[3]
• 1736 – Feijoo calls the art of medicine abstruse.^[9]
• 1770 – the Academy's dictionary marks the word as little used.^[11]
• 1884 – the Academy gives the etymology from Latin abstrusus.^[13]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hard to understand; recondite, abstruse: Nos dio una explicación tan abstrusa que nadie la siguió.^[2][14][1]
2. (obsolete) Hidden, remote, hard to reach.^[11][10]

Related words

• intruso
• Latin abstrūsus
• French abstrus
• English abstruse

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. abstruso
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. intruso
4. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
6. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. abstrus
7. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 1, 10
8. ^ Echegaray, Eduardo de (1887–1889), Diccionario general etimológico de la lengua española, 5 vols., Madrid: José María Faquineto, p. 36
9. ^ a b c d e f g Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. abstruso
10. ^ a b c Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. abstruso
11. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1770), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 2nd ed., vol. I: A–B, Madrid: Joachín Ibarra, p. 1, 25
12. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 5
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 8
14. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. abstruso