Absurd vs Abstruse - What's the difference?
absurd | abstruse |
Contrary to reason or propriety; obviously and flatly opposed to manifest truth; inconsistent with the plain dictates of common sense; logically contradictory; nonsensical; ridiculous; silly.
* 1591 , (William Shakespeare), , V-iv
* ca. 1710 , (Alexander Pope)
* , chapter=17
, title= (obsolete) Inharmonious; dissonant.
Having no rational or orderly relationship to people's lives; meaningless; lacking order or value.
* (rfdate) Adults have condemned them to live in what must seem like an absurd universe. - Joseph Featherstone
Dealing with absurdism.
(obsolete) An absurdity.
(philosophy) The opposition between the human search for meaning in life and the inability to find any; the state or condition in which man exists in an irrational universe and his life has no meaning outside of his existence.
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(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:
* 1667 , , Paradise Lost :
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:
* 1748 , David Hume, Enquiries concerning the human understanding and concerning the principles of moral. London: Oxford University Press, 1973. § 13.
* 1855 , , History of Latin Christianity :
As adjectives the difference between absurd and abstruse
is that absurd is absurd while abstruse is (obsolete) concealed or hidden out of the way; secret .absurd
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- This proffer is absurd and reasonless.
- This phrase absurd to call a villain great
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=“Perhaps it is because I have been excommunicated. It's absurd , but I feel like the Jackdaw of Rheims.” ¶ She winced and bowed her head. Each time that he spoke flippantly of the Church he caused her pain.}}
Usage notes
* More and most absurd are the preferred or more common form of the comparable, as opposed to absurder and absurdest. * Among the synonyms: ** Irrational is the weakest, denoting that which is plainly inconsistent with the dictates of sound reason; as, an irrational course of life. ** Foolish rises higher, and implies either a perversion of that faculty, or an absolute weakness or fatuity of mind; as, foolish enterprises. ** Absurd rises still higher, denoting that which is plainly opposed to received notions of propriety and truth; as, an absurd man, project, opinion, story, argument, etc. ** Preposterous rises still higher, and supposes an absolute inversion'' in the order of things; or, in plain terms, a "putting of the cart before the horse;" as, a ''preposterous'' suggestion, ''preposterous'' conduct, a ''preposterous regulation or law.Synonyms
* foolish, irrational, ridiculous, preposterous, inconsistent, incongruous, ludicrous * See alsoDerived terms
* absurdly, absurdity * AbsurdistanNoun
(en noun) (Absurdism)Usage notes
* (philosophy) Absurd is sometimes preceded by the word the .Derived terms
* theatre of the absurdReferences
abstruse
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- 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.
- The eternal eye whose sight discerns abstrusest thoughts.
- ...at the end of his cogitacions, fyndithe more abstruse , and doutfull obiections then at the beginning...
- It is certain that the easy and obvious philosophy will always, with the generality of mankind, have the preference above the accurate and abstruse ;
- Profound and abstruse topics.