subtle

• subtil, subtile, suttle (all obsolete)

From Middle English sotil, subtil, borrowed from Old French soutil, later subtil, French subtil, from Latin subtīlis (“fine, thin, slender, delicate”); probably, originally, “woven fine”, and from sub (“under”) + tela (“a web”), from texere (“to weave”).

• enPR: sŭt'(ə)l, IPA^(key): /ˈsʌt(ə)l/, [ˈsʌɾɫ̩]
• Rhymes: -ʌtəl

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subtle (comparative subtler or more subtle, superlative subtlest or most subtle)

1. Hard to grasp; not obvious or easily understood; barely noticeable.

   The difference is subtle, but you can hear it if you listen carefully.

   • 1712, Richard Blackmore, Creation: A Philosophical Poem. Demonstrating the Existence and Providence of a God. In Seven Books, book I, London: Printed for S. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little-Britain; and J[acob] Tonson, at Shakespear's Head over-against Catherine-Street in the Strand, OCLC 731619916; 5th edition, Dublin: Printed by S. Powell, for G. Risk, G. Ewing, and W. Smith, in Dame's-street, 1727, OCLC 728300884, page 7:

     The mighty Magnet from the Center darts / This ſtrong, tho' ſubtile Force, thro' all the Parts: / Its active Rays ejaculated thence, / Irradiate all the wide Circumference.

2. (of a thing) Cleverly contrived.
3. (of a person or animal) Cunning, skillful.
4. Insidious, deceptive, malicious.
   • 1623, William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Richard the Third, Act IV, scene 4:

     Thy age confirmed, proud, subtle, bloody, treacherous.

5. Tenuous; rarefied; of low density or thin consistency.
6. (obsolete) Refined; exquisite.

• (cunning, skillful): crafty, cunning, skillful
• (insidious): insidious

• (hard to grasp): simple

• subtle in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• subtle in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• “subtle” in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989, →ISBN.

• bluest, bluets, bustle, butles, sublet