Obscure vs Common - What's the difference?
obscure | common |
Dark, faint or indistinct.
* (Dante Alighieri), , 1, 1-2
* Bible, Proverbs xx. 20
Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.
* (William Shakespeare)
* Sir J. Davies
Difficult to understand.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= (label) To render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
* (William Wake) (1657-1737)
*{{quote-book, year=1959, author=(Georgette Heyer), title=(The Unknown Ajax), chapter=1
, passage=But Richmond
(label) To hide, put out of sight etc.
* (Bill Watterson), Homicidal Psycho Jungle Cat , page 62
To conceal oneself; to hide.
* (Beaumont and Fletcher) (1603-1625)
Mutual; shared by more than one.
* , chapter=19
, title= Occurring or happening regularly or frequently; usual.
* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author=
, title= Found in large numbers or in a large quantity.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-03, author=Lee A. Groat, title=Gemstones
, volume=100, issue=2, page=128, magazine=(American Scientist)
Simple, ordinary or vulgar.
* Washington Irving
* Shakespeare
* A. Murphy
*
(grammar) In some languages, particularly Germanic languages, of the gender originating from the coalescence of the masculine and feminine categories of nouns.
Of or pertaining to uncapitalized nouns in English, i.e., common nouns vs. proper nouns.
Vernacular, referring to the name of a kind of plant or animal, i.e., common name vs. scientific name.
(obsolete) Profane; polluted.
* Bible, Acts x. 15
(obsolete) Given to lewd habits; prostitute.
* L'Estrange
Mutual good, shared by more than one.
A tract of land in common ownership; common land.
* {{quote-book, year=1944, author=(w)
, title= The people; the community.
* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
(label) The right of taking a profit in the land of another, in common either with the owner or with other persons; so called from the community of interest which arises between the claimant of the right and the owner of the soil, or between the claimants and other commoners entitled to the same right.
(obsolete) To communicate (something).
* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans, Bible , Luke XXII:
(obsolete) To converse, talk.
* , II.ix:
* Grafton
(obsolete) To have sex.
(obsolete) To participate.
(obsolete) To have a joint right with others in common ground.
(obsolete) To board together; to eat at a table in common.
As adjectives the difference between obscure and common
is that obscure is dark, faint or indistinct while common is mutual; shared by more than one.As verbs the difference between obscure and common
is that obscure is (label) to render obscure; to darken; to make dim; to keep in the dark; to hide; to make less visible, intelligible, legible, glorious, beautiful, or illustrious while common is (obsolete) to communicate (something).As a noun common is
mutual good, shared by more than one.obscure
English
Adjective
(en-adj)- I found myself in an obscure wood.
- His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.
- The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night.
- the obscure corners of the earth
The machine of a new soul, passage=The yawning gap in neuroscientists’ understanding of their topic is in the intermediate scale of the brain’s anatomy. Science has a passable knowledge of how individual nerve cells, known as neurons, work. It also knows which visible lobes and ganglia of the brain do what. But how the neurons are organised in these lobes and ganglia remains obscure .}}
Usage notes
* The comparative obscurer and superlative obscurest, though formed by valid rules for English, are less common than more obscure' and ' most obscure .Synonyms
* enigmatic * mysterious * esotericAntonyms
* clearDerived terms
* obscurable * unobscurableVerb
(obscur)- They are all couched in a pit hard by Herne's oak, with obscured lights.
- There is scarce any duty which has been so obscured by the writings of learned men as this.
- I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity.
- How! There's bad news. / I must obscure , and hear it.
External links
* * ----common
English
(wikipedia common)Adjective
(en-adj)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Nothing was too small to receive attention, if a supervising eye could suggest improvements likely to conduce to the common welfare. Mr. Gordon Burnage, for instance, personally visited dust-bins and back premises, accompanied by a sort of village bailiff, going his round like a commanding officer doing billets.}}
Katie L. Burke
In the News, volume=101, issue=3, page=193, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Bats host many high-profile viruses that can infect humans, including severe acute respiratory syndrome and Ebola. A recent study explored the ecological variables that may contribute to bats’ propensity to harbor such zoonotic diseases by comparing them with another order of common reservoir hosts: rodents.}}
citation, passage=Although there are dozens of different types of gems, among the best known and most important are […] . (Common gem materials not addressed in this article include amber, amethyst, chalcedony, garnet, lazurite, malachite, opals, peridot, rhodonite, spinel, tourmaline, turquoise and zircon.)}}
- the honest, heart-felt enjoyment of common life
- This fact was infamous / And ill beseeming any common man, / Much more a knight, a captain and a leader.
- above the vulgar flight of common souls
- She was frankly disappointed. For some reason she had thought to discover a burglar of one or another accepted type—either a dashing cracksman in full-blown evening dress, lithe, polished, pantherish, or a common yegg, a red-eyed, unshaven burly brute in the rags and tatters of a tramp.
- What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common .
- a dame who herself was common
Synonyms
* (mutual ): mutual, shared * (usual ): normal, ordinary, standard, usual * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): widespread * See alsoAntonyms
* (mutual ): personal, individual * (usual ): rare, unusual, uncommon * (occurring in large numbers or in a large quantity ): few and far between, rare, uncommonSee also
* (English grammar ): epicene, feminine, masculine, neuterNoun
(en noun)The Three Corpse Trick, chapter=5 , passage=The hovel stood in the centre of what had once been a vegetable garden, but was now a patch of rank weeds. Surrounding this, almost like a zareba, was an irregular ring of gorse and brambles, an unclaimed vestige of the original common .}}
- the weal o' the common
Verb
(en verb)- Then entred Satan into Judas, whose syr name was iscariot (which was of the nombre off the twelve) and he went his waye, and commened with the hye prestes and officers, how he wolde betraye hym vnto them.
- So long as Guyon with her commoned , / Vnto the ground she cast her modest eye [...].
- Embassadors were sent upon both parts, and divers means of entreaty were commoned of.
- (Sir Thomas More)
- (Johnson)