Both Uses of
obscure
in
1984 by Orwell
- He was a lonely ghost uttering a truth that nobody would ever hear. But so long as he uttered it, in some obscure way the continuity was not broken. It was not by making yourself heard but by staying sane that you carried on the human heritage.
p. 27..9 *obscure = undistinguished
- She must have followed him here, because it was not credible that by pure chance she should have happened to be walking on the same evening up the same obscure backstreet, kilometres distant from any quarter where Party members lived.
p. 101..2obscure = not known to many people (or seemingly unimportant and uninteresting)
Definition:
-
(obscure as in: knows the famous and the obscure) not known to many people; or unimportant or undistinguishededitor's notes: More rarely, this meaning of obscure can be used for:
- seemingly unimportant -- as in "I want her on the team. She always seems to ask obscure questions that reveal problems in a different light."
- humble (typically only found in classic literature) -- as in "Nobody at the table would have guessed of her obscure family background."