Recondite

//ˈɹɛk(ə)nˌdaɪt// adj, noun, verb

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Difficult, obscure.; Difficult to grasp or understand; abstruse, profound.

    "a recondite tractate on alchemy"

  2. 2
    Difficult, obscure.; Little known; esoteric, secret.

    "[T]here was in the man much learning, and that of the more inward & recondit, a great Antiquary, and one that had a certain large poſſeſſion of Divine and Humane Lawes."

  3. 3
    Difficult, obscure.; Having mastery over one's field, including its esoteric minutiae; learned.

    "It is delightful to see this recondite scholar [Thomas Browne]—this contemplative and refining dreamer—in the centre of his happy nor unworthy household."

  4. 4
    Difficult, obscure.; Deliberately employing abstruse or esoteric allusions or references; intentionally obscure.

    "They afford a lesson to the modern metaphysical and recondite writers not to overvalue their works."

  5. 5
    Hidden or removed from view. archaic

    "The Eye is somewhat recondit betweene its Orbite."

Show 2 more definitions
  1. 6
    Hidden or removed from view.; Difficult to see, especially because it is hidden by another structure. archaic, obsolete, rare

    "Recondite, (aculeus) concealed within the abdomen, seldom exposed to view."

  2. 7
    Hidden or removed from view.; Avoiding notice (particularly human notice); having a tendency to hide; shy. archaic, rare

    "Animals of this class are so recondite in their habits... so little known to naturalists beyond the more common species."

Adjective
  1. 1
    difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge wordnet
Noun
  1. 1
    A recondite (hidden or obscure) person or thing. rare

    "[T]he Duchess, and the dandies, and the member's wife and all the rest of their tribulations, were happily hidden from the view by the towering bouquets of the gold plateau vases at the head of the room. [...] A contra-dance after supper was felt to be a national duty; but behind those fatal vases a plot had already been concocted by the recondites for rewarding their previous self-denial, not by a quadrille, but a galoppe."

  2. 2
    A scholar or other person who is recondite, that is, who has mastery over his or her field, including its esoteric minutiae. rare

    "Here we have an uncommon acquaintance with the conditions of society in the mass, which, perhaps, some of our recondites would hardly be disposed to expect in the case of a man of a character so eminent and philosophical as [Dugald] Stewart, and addicted to studies removing him so far from the sphere of common mortals."

Verb
  1. 1
    To conceal, cover up, hide. obsolete, rare, transitive

    "Tendons: recondited, and hidde in their Muscle, as if they were in a purse imposed."

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