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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

rec·on·dite

Audio Help [rek-uh

n-dahyt, ri-kon-dahyt] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

1.	dealing with very profound, difficult, or abstruse subject matter: a recondite treatise.

2.	beyond ordinary knowledge or understanding; esoteric: recondite principles.

3.	little known; obscure: a recondite fact.

[Origin: 1640–50; earlier recondit < L reconditus recondite, hidden (orig. ptp. of recondere to hide), equiv. to re- re- + cond(ere) to bring together (con- con- + -dere to put) + -itus -ite²

]

—Related forms

rec·on·dite·ly, adverb

rec·on·dite·ness, noun

—Synonyms 2. deep. 3. mysterious, occult, secret.

—Antonyms 2. exoteric. 3. well-known.

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

rec·on·dite Audio Help (rěk'ən-dīt', rĭ-kŏn'dīt') Pronunciation Key
adj.

Not easily understood; abstruse. See Synonyms at ambiguous.
Concerned with or treating something abstruse or obscure: recondite scholarship.
Concealed; hidden.

[Latin reconditus, past participle of recondere, to put away : re-, re- + condere, to put together, preserve; see dhē- in Indo-European roots.]

rec'on·dite'ly adv., rec'on·dite'ness n.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
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Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This
recondite

1649, "removed or hidden from view," from L. reconditus, pp. of recondere "store away," from re- "away" + condere "to store, hide, put together," from con- "together" + -dere "to put, place." Meaning "removed from ordinary understanding, profound" is from 1652; of writers or sources, "obscure," it is recorded from 1817.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

recondite
adjective
difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; "the professor's lectures were so abstruse that students tended to avoid them"; "a deep metaphysical theory"; "some recondite problem in historiography" [syn: abstruse]