Obfustication

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The act of making something obscure or unintelligible through deliberate confusion or complexity
2. The process of obscuring meaning or clarity intentionally to mislead or confuse others
3. A method of creating ambiguity or misunderstanding in communication through convoluted language or presentation

Etymology: "Obfustication" is a blend-like variant of "obfuscation," and it is best understood through the older word it imitates. The core of the root is the Latin "fuscus," meaning "dark" or "dusky," which also gave English "fuscous," a dull grayish-brown. Latin "obfuscare" combined "fuscare," "to make dark," with "ob," meaning "over," so the literal sense was to cover something in darkness, or to throw a shadow over it. That physical idea of darkening passed into a figurative one: rather than hiding a thing in shadow, a speaker could cloud its meaning so that it became hard to grasp. The Middle English form "obfuscacioun" came through Latin "obfuscatio," and the modern noun "obfuscation" carries that sense of deliberately making something murky. "Obfustication" is a non-standard variant, and it is most likely formed by analogy with words ending in "-fication" and "-stication," such as "sophistication." Dictionaries generally list it only as a synonym of "obfuscation," so the standard spelling is the one to use in formal writing.

Synonyms: confusion, bewilderment, obfuscation, perplexity, muddling

Antonyms: clarity, lucidity, understanding, comprehension, explanation