• (RP) IPA: /ˈɹɛk(ə)nˌdaɪt/, /ɹɪˈkɒndaɪt/
• (GA) IPA: /ˈɹɛkənˌdaɪt/, /ɹəˈkɑnˌdaɪt/, /ɹiˈkɑnˌdaɪt/

recondite

1. Of areas of discussion or research#Noun|research: difficult, obscure.
   1. Difficult to grasp#Verb|grasp or understand; abstruse, profound.
      • 1879–1880, Robert Louis Stevenson, “Steerage Scenes”, in The Amateur Emigrant: From the Clyde to Sandy Hook, Chicago, Ill.: Stone and Kimball, published 18 January 1895, OCLC 523063 ↗, page 40 ↗:

        Humanly speaking, it is a more important matter to play the fiddle, even badly, than to write huge works upon recondite subjects.

   2. Little known; esoteric, secret#Adjective|secret.
      • 1817, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, chapter III, in Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, volume I, London: Rest Fenner […], OCLC 489762501 ↗, page 65 ↗:

        [Of {{w

      • 1849, Herman Melville, “They Visit One Doxodox”, in Mardi: And a Voyage Thither. [...] In Two Volumes, volume II, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, publishers, […], OCLC 2413019 ↗, page 279 ↗:

        But I beseech thee, wise Doxodox! instruct me in thy dialectics, that I may embrace thy more recondite lore.

      • 1947 January 25, W[illiam] Somerset Maugham, chapter 15, in Catalina: A Romance, Melbourne, Vic.; London: William Heinemann, published 1948, OCLC 459403118 ↗, page 83 ↗:

        Images sprang to his mind as profuse and fat as mushrooms after rain, and being well read in the Scriptures, the works of the fathers and the Latin moralists, he was never at a loss for a recondite allusion.

   3. Of scholars: having mastery over one's field#Noun|field, including its esoteric minutiae; learned#Adjective|learned.
   4. Of writers: deliberately employ#Verb|employing abstruse or esoteric allusions or reference#Noun|references; intentionally obscure.
      • 1788, Vicesimus Knox, Winter Evenings, II. v. i. 109

        They afford a lesson to the modern metaphysical and recondite writers not to overvalue their works.

      • 1817, S[amuel] T[aylor] Coleridge, chapter XXII, in Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions, volume II, London: Rest Fenner […], OCLC 489762501 ↗, page 172 ↗:

        In the play of Fancy, [William] Wordsworth, to my feelings, is not always graceful and sometimes recondite.

      • 2004 Autumn, American Scholar, 129

        The voices of recondite writers quoted at length, forgotten storytellers weaving narratives, obscure scholars savaging one another.

2. (somewhat, archaic) hidden#Adjective|Hidden or remove#Verb|removed from view#Noun|view.
   • 1649, John Bulwer, Pathomyotomia, ii. ii. 108

     The Eye is somewhat recondit betweene its Orbite.

   • 1796, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Letters, I. 209

     My recondite eye sits distent quaintly behind the flesh-hill, and looks as little as a tomtit's.

   • 1823, Charles Lamb, Old Benchers in Elia, 190

     The young urchins,... not being able to guess at its recondite machinery, were almost tempted to hail the wondrous work as magic.

   • 1855 December – 1857 June​, Charles Dickens, “Mr. Merdle’s Complaint”, in Little Dorrit, London: Bradbury and Evans, […], published 1857, OCLC 83401042 ↗, book the first (Poverty), page 185 ↗:

     How such a man should suppose himself unwell without reason, you may think strange. But I have found nothing the matter with him. He may have some deep-seated recondite complaint. I can't say. I only say, that at present I have not found it out.

   • 1887, Robert Louis Stevenson, "The Canoe Speaks" in Underwoods

     ...following the recondite brook,

     Sudden upon this scene I look,

     And light with unfamiliar face

     On chaste Diana's bathing-place

   • 2002, Nick Tosches, In the Hand of Dante, 253

     Silent calligraphy sounds that were like those of the sweet fluent water of a recondite stream.

   1. (botany, entomology, obsolete, rare) Of a structure#Noun|structure: difficult to see#Verb|see, especially because it is hidden by another structure.
      • 1825, Thomas Say, Say's Entomol., Glossary, 28

        Recondite, (aculeus) concealed within the abdomen, seldom exposed to view.

   2. (chiefly, zoology, rare) Avoiding notice#Noun|notice (particularly human#Adjective|human notice); having a tendency to hide#Verb|hide; shy#Adjective|shy.

      Synonyms: retiring

      • 1835, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 125, 361

        Animals of this class are so recondite in their habits... so little known to naturalists beyond the more common species.

• Italian: recondito
• Russian: замыслова́тый
• Spanish: recóndito

recondite (plural recondites)

1. (rare) A recondite (hidden#Adjective|hidden or obscure#Adjective|obscure) person or thing.
2. (rare) A scholar or other person who is recondite, that is, who has mastery over his or her field#Noun|field, including its esoteric minutiae.

recondite (recondites, present participle reconditing; past and past participle recondited)

1. (transitive, obsolete, rare) To conceal, cover up, hide#Verb|hide.