obscure

Etymology

From Middle English obscure, from Old French obscur, from Latin obscūrus (“dark, dusky, indistinct”), from ob- + *scūrus, from Proto-Italic *skoiros, from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ḱeh₃-. Doublet of oscuro.

adj

1. Dark, faint or indistinct.
   I found myself in an obscure wood. 1892, Denton Jaques Snider, Inferno, 1, 1-2 (originally by Dante Alighieri)
2. Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.
   the obscure corners of the earth 1606, John Davies of Hereford, Bien Venu
3. Difficult to understand.
   The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure. 2013-08-03, “The machine of a new soul”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847
   an obscure passage or inscription; The speaker made obscure references to little-known literary works.
4. Not well-known.
5. Unknown or uncertain; unclear.
   The etymological roots of the word "blizzard" are obscure and open to debate.

verb

1. (transitive) To render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious.
   c. 1688', William Wake, Preparation for Death There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured in the writings of learned men as this.
2. (transitive) To hide, put out of sight etc.
   But Richmond[…]appeared to lose himself in his own reflections. Some pickled crab, which he had not touched, had been removed with a damson pie; and his sister saw, peeping around the massive silver epergne that almost obscured him from her view, that he had eaten no more than a spoonful of that either. 1959, Georgette Heyer, chapter 1, in The Unknown Ajax
   However, many people—including railwaymen—are only beginning to realise how great is the amount of civil engineering work necessary to achieve adequate clearances for high-voltage overhead equipment under bridges and tunnels; what is involved in the re-signalling needed to permit the increased throughput of traffic (in some places it is unavoidable, to afford better sighting of signals obscured by overhead electrical gear); …. 1961 December, “Planning the London Midland main-line electrification”, in Trains Illustrated, page 719
   I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. 1994, Bill Watterson, Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat, page 62
3. (intransitive, obsolete) To conceal oneself; to hide.