Etymologically
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reconditus

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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It is found from Cicero and Catullus on:[1][3] in his speech for Quinctius, Cicero describes a man of a gloomy and withdrawn nature, nātūrā tristī ac reconditā, who was never seen at the sundial, on the Campus or at dinner parties.[1][2]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  • 81–43 BC – Cicero uses it of a withdrawn character, of hidden things and of abstruse learning.[1][3]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 (of character) Withdrawn, retiring.[1][4]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