Adjective

(en-adj)

Dark, faint or indistinct.

* (Dante Alighieri), , 1, 1-2

I found myself in an obscure wood.

* Bible, Proverbs xx. 20

His lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

Hidden, out of sight or inconspicuous.

* (William Shakespeare)

The obscure bird / Clamoured the livelong night.

* Sir J. Davies

the obscure corners of the earth

Difficult to understand.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= 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 .}}

Adjective

(en adjective)

Out of the ordinary; odd; curious; unusual.

The sky had a peculiar appearance before the storm.

It would be rather peculiar to see a kangaroo hopping down a city street.

* 1800 , , Volume 41, page 379,

I saw nothing peculiar in his conduct, and thought that his arrangement of the ballot box was perfect.

* 2001 , Jack Schaefer, Wendell Minor, Shane ,

"Wasn't it peculiar ," I heard mother say, "How he wouldn't talk about himself?"

"Peculiar ?" said father. "Well, yes, in a way."

"Everything about him is peculiar ." Mother sounded as if she was stirred up and interested. "I never saw a man quite like him before."

* 2008', Stephen Arnott, '''''Peculiar Proverbs: Weird Words of Wisdom from Around the World .

Common or usual for a certain place or circumstance; specific or particular.

Kangaroos are peculiar to Australia.

* 1855 , ,

This philosopher found his ideas especially in all that is practical,^[29] that is, which rests upon freedom, which in its turn ranks under cognitions that are the peculiar product of reason.

*

* 1895 , , XX: Anomalous Islands: Celebes,

But of late years extensive Tertiary deposits of Miocene age have been discovered, showing that it is not a mere congeries of volcanoes; it [Iceland] is connected with the British Islands and with Greenland by seas less than 500 fathoms deep; and it possesses a few mammalia, one of which is peculiar', and at least three ' peculiar species of birds.

(dated) One's own; belonging solely or especially to an individual; not shared or possessed by others.

* Bible, Titus ii. 14

And purify unto himself a peculiar people.

* Hooker

hymns that Christianity hath peculiar unto itself

(dated) Particular; individual; special; appropriate.

* Milton

while each peculiar power forgoes his wonted seat

* Dryden

My fate is Juno's most peculiar care.