Arcane

Part of speech: adjective

Pronunciation: /ɑɹˈkeɪn/

Definitions

1. Mysterious and understood by very few people due to being obscure, specialized, or deliberately hidden from general knowledge
2. understood only by those with specialized knowledge due to being deliberately obscure or hidden from ordinary comprehension
3. kept secret or incomprehensible to most people because of its specialized, mysterious, or deliberately concealed nature

Etymology: Latin "arcānus" meant "hidden" or "secret," and it came from "arceō," a verb meaning "to shut up" or "enclose." The same root gave Latin "arca," a chest, so the core idea is of something closed away from view. A secret was, in effect, a thing kept in a box. English borrowed the word directly from Latin, so it kept that sense of concealment for a long time. Its modern meaning, "known by few," grew out of the older idea of knowledge locked away from ordinary people. Arcane knowledge is knowledge that has been sealed off, available only to those with the right key, whether that key is training, initiation, or access.

Synonyms: esoteric, cryptic, obscure, recondite, enigmatic

Antonyms: obvious, clear, evident, known, familiar