A.Word.A.Day --obscurantism

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obscurantism

PRONUNCIATION:

(uhb-SKYOOR-uhn-tiz-uhm, ob-skyoo-RAN-tiz-uhm)

MEANING:

noun:
1. Opposition to the spread of knowledge.
2. Being deliberately vague or obscure; also a style in art and literature.

ETYMOLOGY:

From Latin obscurare (to make dark).

USAGE:

"Jeane Kirkpatrick possessed the rare gift of being able to write subtle and challenging studies of international politics and to formulate strikingly simple and apt phrases to cut through obscurantism and cant."
Joseph P. Duggan; Jeane Kirkpatrick Set a Very High Bar; St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri); Dec 18, 2006.

See more usage examples of obscurantism in Vocabulary.com's dictionary.

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY:

Insane people are always sure that they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy. -Nora Ephron, novelist (b. 1941)

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