RECONDITE

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Slava
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RECONDITE

Postby Slava » Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:43 am

Today's Good Word:
• recondite •

Pronunciation: re-kên-dait • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: 1. Concealed, mysterious, not readily seen or apprehended. 2. Abstruse, arcane, incomprehensible to all but experts.

Notes: Although the meaning of this word is rather recondite, the word itself is quite pedestrian: the adverb is expectable reconditely and the noun, reconditeness. It exhibits no other derivations.

In Play: Since the original meaning of the root of today's word was "to put away", "out of sight" was its original meaning: "Intrigued by the recondite inner workings of the curious little machine, Rusty Carr began immediately to take it apart." Today it is used far more widely in the second sense: "R. Cain gets most of his information from recondite sources that are difficult for others to find and check."

Word History: Today's Good Word comes to us from Latin reconditus, the past participle of recondere "to put away", made up of re- "again, back" + condere "to put together, preserve". The base verb here, condere is itself a complex of con- "together (with)" + dere "to put", which derives from the same primitive root as English do. English also borrowed the past participle of condere as condite "preserved; preserves", a word now considered obsolete. However, incondite "put together, built badly", based on the same Latin verb, still lurks in the deeper dictionaries.

LukeJavan8
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Re: RECONDITE

Postby LukeJavan8 » Sat Nov 02, 2013 12:47 pm

"still lurks in deeper dictionaries", terrific!
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Perry Lassiter
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Re: RECONDITE

Postby Perry Lassiter » Sat Nov 02, 2013 3:30 pm

Very esoteric...
pl

wurdpurrson
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Re: RECONDITE

Postby wurdpurrson » Sat Nov 02, 2013 5:43 pm

Noting in the word history that English borrowed from the root "condite", "preserve or preserves": is the word "condiment", meaning preserves or pickled foods, related at all?

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Slava
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Re: RECONDITE

Postby Slava » Sat Nov 02, 2013 6:17 pm

Noting in the word history that English borrowed from the root "condite", "preserve or preserves": is the word "condiment", meaning preserves or pickled foods, related at all?
Yep.
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wurdpurrson
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Re: RECONDITE

Postby wurdpurrson » Sat Nov 02, 2013 10:18 pm

Thought it must be so - thanks.

Philip Hudson
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Re: RECONDITE

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Nov 03, 2013 2:36 am

I have sampled many recondite condiments in my day. But if the picante sauce isn't made in Texas I avoid it like the plague.

Every year, with the green tomatoes that are on the vine just before the first freeze, we make a condiment called chow-chow. It is ambrosia to a country boy. If you have bought any chow-chow either in a supermarket or a specialty store, you might not be getting the real thing. Real chow-chow is principally made of green tomatoes. Some I have bought is sauerkraut that failed.
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Re: RECONDITE

Postby MTC » Sun Nov 03, 2013 10:52 am

You have led us down the recondite trail of true Texas cuisine
(aka, "chow",) Philip. In Hong Kong for a couple of days, I am unlikely to find "chow chow." The sushi is great, however.

So much of what we know about the world today is the in the province of experts, arcane and recondite. We "understand" only through popular accounts.


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