reconditus

Forms

reconditus (feminine recondita, neuter reconditum, comparative reconditior); first and second declension^[1][2]

Etymology

Used as an adjective, it is the past participle from Latin recondō (“to put away, store away”).^[1][3][2] That verb is a compound of re- and condō (“to put away, store”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is found from Cicero and Catullus on:^[1][3] in his speech for Quinctius, Cicero describes a man of a gloomy and withdrawn nature, nātūrā tristī ac reconditā, who was never seen at the sundial, on the Campus or at dinner parties.^[1][2]

Semantic evolution

Of things it meant hidden away, concealed or secret: Cicero speaks of what had to be concealed being kept stored away and hidden, and of hidden veins of gold and silver.^[1][4] Of places it meant secluded: Catullus speaks of a mistress of secluded glades, saltuum reconditōrum,^[1][2] and Caesar uses the neuter plural, occulta ac recondita templī, of the innermost parts of a temple.^[4][1] The phrase in reconditō meant in concealment.^[1][4]

Figuratively it meant abstruse or recherché: Cicero speaks of the abstruse art of the mathematicians and of recondite learning,^[1][2] and Suetonius of the far-fetched words, recondita verba, that Augustus avoided.^[1][4] It could also mean obscure or unintelligible, as of a mysterious rumbling heard in the land near the city.^[1][2]

English borrowed it in the 1640s as recondite, perhaps through French, first meaning “removed or hidden from view”.^[5]

Timeline

• 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a withdrawn character, of hidden things and of abstruse learning.^[1][3]
• 81/79–52/50 BC – Catullus uses it of secluded glades.^[1][3]
• c. 50 BC – Caesar uses the neuter plural of the innermost parts of a temple.^[4][3]
• c. 75–c. 150 AD – Suetonius uses it of far-fetched words.^[1][3]
• 1640s – Borrowed into English as recondite.^[5]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Hidden away, concealed, secret.^[1][4]
2. (of places) Secluded, remote;^[1][4] in reconditō, in concealment.^[1][4]
3. Abstruse, recondite, recherché.^[1][2]
4. Obscure, unintelligible.^[1][2]
5. (of character) Withdrawn, retiring.^[1][4]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Conte, Gian Biagio; Pianezzola, Emilio; Ranucci, Giuliano (2010), il Latino: Vocabolario della lingua latina, 3rd ed., Florence: Le Monnier
3. ^ a b c d e f Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
5. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com