As a lot of this blog is about writing, I wanted to write a regular article on my favourite forgotten words. You know the type of thing, those poor lost words that sit at the back of our minds, gathering dust, having been discovered years ago in literary classics like Dickens, or Austen. They are the spices of the literary world, but I refuse to let them sit in a cupboard and be ignored until they go out of date! Let’s bring them back!
This month’s word is: OBSCURANTIST
Obscurantist
Adjective
Deliberately vague and difficult to understand so it stops people finding out the truth.
This definition is from the Collins Online Dictionary and most of the sources I found all defined this word with an example of politicians! How true! I can’t think of anyone who does this more than them, but I’m not going to get caught up in that right now, I’m not one for political talk. So, instead I’ll tell you about the last time I was obscurantist. It was with my nine year old daughter. She asked me how babies get into a mummy’s tummy and unable to face such a difficult question I referred her to the ice creams in the freezer! A nifty distraction. And thankfully that question hasn’t come up since!
When was the last time you were obscurantist? Let me know in the comments below!