Make Your Point: OBSCURE

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pronounce OBSCURE:

ub SKYOOR

Hear it.

connect this word to others:

We're in 2023 now, the ninth year that I've been writing Make Your Point. (Ninth? Yup.) And I haven't yet featured the common, useful, simple, beautifully metaphorical word obscure until just now, because I used to toss it aside as "too easy."

Which is silly, because the easiest words are the most useful. Right? They can also be the richest. I figure you and I already know the word obscure, but that it's possible we could learn more about it, or use it more skillfully.

Let's start by distinguishing it from similar words. See if you can recall the words below, all of which are more specific types of obscure:

1. Something obscure in a scholarly, mysterious way is ar____.

2. Something obscure in a dark, gloomy, hidden-deep-in-a-forest way is ten___ous.

3. Something obscure in a vague, mystical, fortune-teller kind of way is Sib___ine.

(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)

definition:

"Obscure" has Latin bits that literally mean "covered over."

Something obscure can be
dark and gloomy;
or hard to find, as if it's hidden far away;
or unclear and hard to understand;
or the opposite of famous: not known to most people.

And, to obscure something is to darken it, to make it hard to see, or to make it hard to understand, as if you're covering it up.

grammatical bits:

Part of speech:

Often an adjective: "It's an obscure reference;" "The reference was obscure."

And often a verb, the transitive kind: "Clouds obscured the moon;" "The moon was obscured by clouds."

Other common forms:

obscured, obscuring; obscurely; obscurity

how to use it:

"Obscure" is a common, serious, formal word. It can have a negative tone, implying that people are hiding, covering, or darkening things on purpose, for some unknown or sneaky reason.

To use "obscure" as an adjective, talk about obscure places, facts, words and phrases, allusions and references, artists and historical figures, etc.

And to use it as a verb, say that one thing obscures another; for example, city lights can obscure the stars, dusk and dark clothing can obscure runners, and fancy words can obscure the truth or the meaning.

examples:

"He hates that his name is both absurd and obscure, that it has nothing to do with who he is, that it is neither Indian nor American but of all things Russian."
— Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake, 2003

"When people say handmade, they usually mean made at home, or at least bespoke, end to end, by the same skilled hands that started the project. The label is applied so preciously that it obscures the truth that everything you wear is handmade to some extent."
— Haley E.D. Houseman, Catapult, 2019

"He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night."
— F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, 1925

has this page helped you understand "obscure"?

Awesome, I'm glad it helped!

Thanks for letting me know!
If you have any questions about this word, please message me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

study it:

Explain the meaning of "obscure" without saying "unknown" or "block."

try it out:

It's really frustrating when people obscure important information.

Sometimes the obscurity is an accident, like when the expiration date on the store's last carton of eggs is illegible. It's worse when the obscurity is deliberate, like when, in the words of the authors of Freakonomics, "a salesman does his best to obscure the car’s base price under a mountain of add-ons and incentives."

With those examples in mind, talk about someone else who obscures information. Do you think they do it deliberately? If so, why?

before you review, play:

Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.

Our game for February: Word Choice Chuckles!

I’ll give you a snippet of text that I spotted in the wild, with one word or phrase removed and its meaning described. See if you can fill in a word or phrase that'll give the reader a good chuckle. Be cheesy. Be punny. Get in there and make me proud.

Here's an example:

"This comes at a time of _____ in the mattress industry."
— Dan Solomon, Texas Monthly, 15 December 2017

Meaning of the missing word: "strife."

Answer: "unrest."

Try this one today:

"If the authors of these sentences are so _____ by big words that they cannot keep their own syntax walking in a straight line, what chance do their readers have?"
— Helen Sword, Stylish Academic Writing, 2012

Meaning of the missing word: "captivated."

To see the answer, scroll all the way down.

review this word:

1. Opposites of OBSCURE include

A. SHREWD, SNEAKY; FOCUS, and SHARPEN.
B. HEALTHY, VITAL; INVIGORATE, and HEAL.
C. ICONIC, ILLUSTRIOUS; DISPLAY, and CLARIFY.

2. From a novel by Sandhya Menon: "The _____ almost completely obscured her face."

A. hoodie
B. spotlight
C. broad grin

a final word:

I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love. I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.

From my blog:
On vocabulary...
  36 ways to study words.
  Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
  How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
On writing...
How to improve any sentence.
How to motivate our kids to write.
How to stop procrastinating and start writing.
How to bulk up your writing when you have to meet a word count.

From my heart: a profound thanks to the generous patrons, donors, and sponsors that make it possible for me to write these emails. If you'd like to be a patron or a donor, please click here. If you'd like to be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.

A disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.

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