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Abstruse vs Transcendental - What's the difference?

abstruse | transcendental | Related terms |

In obsolete terms the difference between abstruse and transcendental

is that abstruse is concealed or hidden out of the way; secret while transcendental is a transcendentalist.

As a noun transcendental is

a transcendentalist.

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

    transcendental

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A transcendentalist.
  • Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • (philosophy) Concerned with the a priori or intuitive basis of knowledge, independent of experience.
  • Superior, surpassing all others.
  • Extraordinary.
  • Mystical or supernatural.
  • (mathematics, number theory) Of, or relating to a number that is not the root of any polynomial that has positive degree and rational coefficients.
  • Antonyms

    * (mathematics) algebraic

    Hypernyms

    * (mathematics) irrational

    Derived terms

    * transcendental ego * transcendental function * transcendentalize * transcendental meditation * transcendental number * transcendentalism