Obscuring

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. Causing something to be unclear, hidden from view, or difficult to understand
2. Hiding or covering part of an object so that it cannot be seen clearly
3. Reducing clarity or making the meaning or appearance hard to perceive

Etymology: "Obscuring" is the present participle of "obscure," so its story is really the story of the verb's root. That root, Latin "obscūrus," meant "dark, dusky, indistinct," and was built from "ob-," a prefix meaning "over" or "against," joined to a stem that survives mainly in this family of words. Latin speakers used it for things literally shrouded in shadow, long before anyone applied it to a thought or a sentence. The word reached English through Old French "obscur," arriving in Middle English as "obscure," and its sense of physical darkness came along with it. Over the centuries the meaning moved from light and shadow toward the mental: an obscure passage is one whose sense is hidden, and to obscure a point is to cloud it so the reader cannot see what is meant. The verb "obscure" took on that figurative weight, and the present participle "obscuring" carries the same shift into action, describing the ongoing process of making something harder to see or understand.

Synonyms: concealing, hiding, veiling, shrouding, masking

Antonyms: revealing, exposing, disclosing, unveiling, clarifying