abditus

Forms

abditus (feminine abdita, neuter abditum); first/second-declension adjective^[1]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin abdō (“to put away, hide”).^[1][2] De Vaan counts abdō among the compounds of -dō, which go back to Proto-Italic *-þō and the root Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to put”), whose simple verb Latin has not kept.^[3] Cognate with Ancient Greek τίθημι (títhēmi, “to put”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler's first source is Cicero,^[4] who speaks of animals hidden and covered with earth.^[1]

Semantic evolution

It means hidden from sight or concealed, and of places out of the way or secluded, as Cicero's “what place was so remote that it was hidden?”^[1] Lucretius uses the neuter plural as a noun, of the hidden parts of the earth that miners search out with iron.^[1] Figuratively it is hidden from knowledge, abstruse, as Cicero's “hidden and obscure things”, and of expressions obscure in meaning.^[1] Church Latin glosses it “concealed, hidden”.^[5]

Timeline

• 96–55 BC – Lucretius of the hidden parts of the earth.^[1][4]
• 81–43 BC – Cicero of hidden animals, remote places and abstruse matters.^[1][4]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hidden, concealed; of places, remote, secluded; as a noun, hidden places.^[1][5]
2. Hidden from knowledge, abstruse, recondite; of expressions, obscure.^[1]

Related words

• abdō
• abditīvus

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
4. ^ a b c Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson