Both Uses
unobtrusive
in
The Great Gatsby
(Edited)
- Sometimes she and Miss Baker talked at once, unobtrusively and with a bantering inconsequence that was never quite chatter, that was as cool as their white dresses and their impersonal eyes in the absence of all desire.
p. 12.3 *unobtrusively = undesirably noticeable (something she would rather not see, but can't help but notice)
- She was appalled by West Egg, ...by the too obtrusive fate that herded its inhabitants along a short-cut from nothing to nothing.
p. 107.4obtrusive = attracting undesired attention; or imposing on othersstandard prefix: Unobtrusive is encountered more than twice as commonly as any form of obtrusive without the prefix un-. The prefix "un-" in unobtrusive means not and reverses the meaning of obtrusive. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
Definitions:
-
(1)
(unobtrusive) fitting in so as not to attract much attention or disturb
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)