Where does “obscurity” come from?
Obscurity comes from Middle French obscurité, from Latin obscuritas, derived from Latin obscurus and the suffix -tas, ultimately from Ancient Greek ὀβολός and βέλος with the prefix ob-.
obscurity (English): Darkness; the absence of light; The state of...
Definitions
- Darkness; the absence of light; The state of...
Ancestry of “obscurity”, step by step
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Middle French | obscurité | — |
| 2 | Latin | obscūritās | darkness |
| 3 | Latin | obscūrus | dark, dusky, shadowy |
| 4 | Latin | ob- | towards; against |
| 5 | Latin | obolus | obolus (Greek coin) |
| 6 | Ancient Greek | ὀβολός | obol, obolus, used at Athens as both a weight and... |
| 7 | Ancient Greek | ὀβελός | a spit, rod; a horizontal line |
| 8 | Ancient Greek | βέλος | missile, arrow, dart; weapon; something quickly... |
| 9 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷélHos | — |
| 10 | Proto-Indo-European | gʷelH- | to throw, reach, pierce; to hit by throwing |