obscurant

American  

[uhb-skyoor-uhnt] / əbˈskyʊər ənt /

noun

1. a person who strives to prevent the increase and spread of knowledge.

2. a person who obscures.

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adjective

1. pertaining to or characteristic of obscurants.

2. tending to make obscure.

obscurant British  

/ əbˈskjʊərənt /

noun

1. an opposer of reform and enlightenment

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adjective

1. of or relating to an obscurant

2. causing obscurity

Other Word Forms

• obscurantism noun
• obscurantist noun

Etymology

Origin of obscurant

1790–1800; < Latin obscūrant- (stem of obscūrāns, present participle of obscūrāre ), equivalent to obscūr ( us ) dark + -ant- -ant

Example Sentences

In this regard, his art can feel almost Victorian, a sensibility America still doesn’t understand, which may explain arguments that Mr. Johns’s work is obscurant and repressed.

From New York Times • Mar. 21, 2014

Dei verbum perurgemus, obscurant; Divos testamur interpretes, obsistunt.

From Ten Reasons Proposed to His Adversaries for Disputation in the Name of the Faith and Presented to the Illustrious Members of Our Universities by Campion, Edmund

Overhead the ionic field was aglow, humming softly, beating back the obscurant mists.

From One Purple Hope! by Hasse, Henry

Whoever confessed his faith in the truths of the Bible was called an obscurant.

From Life of Luther with several introductory and concluding chapters from general church history by Just, Gustav