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Abstruse vs Otherworldly - What's the difference?

abstruse | otherworldly | Related terms |

As adjectives the difference between abstruse and otherworldly

is that abstruse is concealed or hidden out of the way; secret while otherworldly is of, concerned with, or preoccupied with a different world than that of the tangible here and now, such as a heavenly, spiritual, or imaginary world.

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

    otherworldly

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Of, concerned with, or preoccupied with a different world than that of the tangible here and now, such as a heavenly, spiritual, or imaginary world.
  • *1917 , , God, the Invisible King , ch. 5,
  • *:Every religion that becomes ascendant, in so far as it is not otherworldly , must necessarily set its stamp upon the methods and administration of the law.
  • *2007 , Clive Davis, " Simphiwe Dana: The One Love Movement on Bantu Biko Street," Times of London , 26 Aug.,
  • *:Dana has the otherworldly temperament of a mystic.
  • Not belonging to the real world; unnatural; odd and unfamiliar.
  • *1919 , , Saint's Progress , ch. 7,
  • *:He had not seen cricket played since the war began; it seemed almost otherworldly , with the click of the bats, and the shrill young voices.
  • Synonyms

    * (of a different world) alien, ethereal, mystical, transcendental