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Abstruse vs Aby - What's the difference?

abstruse | aby |

As a adjective abstruse

is (obsolete) concealed or hidden out of the way; secret .

As a verb aby is

(obsolete) to pay for; to buy .

abstruse

English

Adjective

(en-adj)
  • (obsolete) Concealed or hidden out of the way; secret.
  • * 1612 , Thomas Shelton (translator), Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish author), The History of the Valorous and Wittie Knight-Errant Don-Quixote of the Mancha , Part 4, Chapter 15, page 500:
  • O who is he that could carrie newes to our olde father, that thou wert but aliue, although thou wert hidden in the most abstruse dungeons of Barbarie; for his riches, my brothers and mine would fetch thee from thence.
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost :
  • The eternal eye whose sight discerns abstrusest thoughts.
  • Difficult to comprehend or understand; recondite; obscure; esoteric.
  • * 1548 , Bishop John Hooper, A Declaration of the Ten Holy Comaundementes of Almygthye God , Chapter 17 Curiosity, Page 218:
  • ...at the end of his cogitacions, fyndithe more abstruse , and doutfull obiections then at the beginning...
  • * 1748 , David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. ยง 13.
  • It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abstruse ;
  • * 1855 , , History of Latin Christianity :
  • Profound and abstruse topics.

    Usage notes

    * More abstruse and most abstruse are the preferred forms over abstruser and abstrusest.

    Derived terms

    * abstrusely * abstruseness

    References

    aby

    English

    Alternative forms

    * abye * abuy

    Verb

  • (obsolete) To pay for; to buy.
  • (archaic) To pay the penalty for; atone for.
  • * Lest to thy peril thou aby it dear. - Shakespeare, Midsummer Night's Dream, III,ii
  • (obsolete) To pay the penalty; atone; to suffer, as a penalty.
  • *
  • (archaic) To pay as penalty, to suffer.
  • * 1590 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , III.4:
  • Who dyes, the utmost dolor doth abye ; / But who that lives is lefte to waile his losse [...].
  • (obsolete) Endure; remain.
  • *
  • *
  • Usage notes

    * , Aby and abide became confused with each other for a period of time.