OBSCURE

I. adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French oscur, obscur, from Latin obscurus Date: 15th century 1. dark , dim , shrouded in or hidden by darkness, not clearly seen or easily distinguished ; faint , not readily understood or clearly expressed, relatively unknown: as, remote , secluded , not prominent or famous , constituting the unstressed vowel \\ə\\ or having unstressed \\ə\\ as its value, ~ly adverb ~ness noun Synonyms: see: ~ II. transitive verb (~d; obscuring) Date: 15th century to make dark, dim, or indistinct, to conceal or hide by or as if by covering, to reduce (a vowel) to the value \\ə\\, obscuration noun III. noun Date: 1667 obscurity