abstruse

From French abstrus[1] or its source, Latin abstrūsus (“hidden, concealed”), the perfect passive participle of abstrūdō (“conceal, to push away”)[2], itself from ab, abs (“away”) + trūdō (“thrust, push”).[3] Cognate with German abstrus.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /əbˈstɹuːs/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /æbˈstɹus/, /əb-/
• Rhymes: -uːs
• Hyphenation: ab‧struse

abstruse (comparative abstruser or more abstruse, superlative abstrusest or most abstruse)

1. Difficult to comprehend or understand. [First attested in the late 16^th century.][1]

   Synonyms: recondite, obscure, esoteric

   • 1548, Bishop John Hooper, “Curiosity”, in A Declaration of the Ten Holy Comaundementes of Almygthye God, page 218:

     […] at the end of his cogitacions / fyndithe more abſtruſe, and doutfull obiections thē at the beginning […]

   • 1748, David Hume, “An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding”, in Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects‎, volume II, new edition, London: T. Cadell, published 1772, section I, page 4:

     It is certain that the eaſy and obvious philoſophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abſtruſe ; and by many will be recommended, not only as more agreeable, but more uſeful than the other.

   • 1854, Henry Hart Milman, “Pelagianism”, in History of Latin Christianity, volume I, London: John Murray, book II:

     A second rescript followed, commanding all bishops not merely to subscribe to the dominant opinions on these profound and abstruse topics, but to condemn their authors, Pelagius and Cœlestius, as irreclaimable heretics, and this under pain of deprivation and banishment.

2. (obsolete) Concealed or hidden out of the way; secret. [Attested from the late 16^th century until the mid 18^th century.][1]
   • 1612, Thomas Shelton, transl., chapter XV, in The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote Of the Mancha‎, London: William Stansby for Ed[ward] Blount, translation of original by Miguel de Cervantes, part 4, page 500:

     O who is he that could carrie newes to our olde father, that thou wert but aliue, although thou wert hidden in the moſt abſtruſe dungeons of Barbarie ; for his riches, my brothers and mine would fetch thee from thence.

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book V”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554:

     , lines 709–714:

     […] Mean while th’ Eternal eye, whoſe ſight diſcernes / Abſtruſeſt thoughts, from forth his holy Mount / And from within the golden Lamps that burne / Nightly before him, ſaw without their light / Rebellion riſing, ſaw in whom, how ſpred / Among the ſons of Morn, what multitudes / Were banded to oppoſe his high Decree […]

• More abstruse and most abstruse are the preferred forms over abstruser and abstrusest.

• (concealed): clandestine, secret, surreptitious; See also Thesaurus:covert
• (difficult to comprehend): esoteric, obscure, recondite; See also Thesaurus:incomprehensible

• abstrusely
• abstruseness

• abstrude
• abstrusion

• abstruse in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• abstruse in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

• Staubers, Straubes, surbates, surbeats

abstruse

1. feminine singular of abstrus

• arbustes

abstruse

1. inflected form of abstrus

abstrūse

1. vocative masculine singular of abstrūsus

• abstruse in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press