abstrusus

Forms

abstrūsus (feminine abstrūsa, neuter abstrūsum, comparative abstrūsior); first/second-declension adjective^[1] It is also spelled apstrūsus.^[2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin abstrūdō (“to thrust away, hide”).^[2][1][3] That verb is formed from abs- and trūdō (“to push, thrust”), which goes back to Proto-Indo-European *treud- (“to push, thrust”).^[4][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in Cicero (81–43 BC),^[3] meaning hidden from view: in the speeches on the agrarian law he asks whether any coin is hidden so deeply that the authors of the law have not sniffed it out.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Cicero also uses it of plots concealed from knowledge, of a grief buried deep in the mind, of recondite subjects of study and, of a person, for secretive or reserved.^[2][6] Later writers used it of things naturally hidden or remote, and Seneca has the neuter as a noun for a remote or underground place.^[2] Pliny the Younger uses it of men living in seclusion.^[2] Arnobius speaks of the hidden beginnings of a cult.^[6]

English abstruse (1590s), “remote from comprehension”, comes from French abstrus or directly from the Latin.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of hidden things, secret plots and recondite subjects.^[2][3]
• 4 BC–65 AD – Seneca uses it of remote places.^[2][3]
• 1590s – English borrows it as abstruse.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hidden, concealed from view.^[2][7]
2. (of persons) Living remote from society, secluded.^[2]
3. Naturally hidden; remote;^[2] abstrūsum (neuter as noun), a remote or underground place.^[2]
4. Secret, concealed from knowledge.^[2]
5. Recondite, abstruse.^[2]
6. (of persons) Secretive, reserved.^[2]

Related words

• English abstruse

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press