abscons

Borrowed from Latin abscōnsus. First attested in a translation dated to 1478 of a medical book in Latin written in 1363 (Guy de Chauliac's Inventarium sive chirurgia magna). Related to Old French abscondre, which it eclipsed in usage while being its participle, and Old French escondre.

• IPA^(key): /ap.skɔ̃/

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abscons (feminine absconse, masculine plural abscons, feminine plural absconses)

1. (literary, derogatory) so abstruse as to prevent comprehension entirely
   • 2018, Constance Debré, chapter 3, in Play boy, Paris: Stock, →ISBN, part 3, page 145:

     Je ne veux rien savoir du chagrin, de l'amour, de l'ennui, je ne veux rien savoir de ces choses-là, de tout ce fatras ordinaire et abscons.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

• absconder

• “abscons”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Borrowed from French abscons, from Latin absconsus.

abscons m or n (feminine singular absconsă, masculine plural absconși, feminine/neuter plural absconse)

1. recondite