Abstruse means so difficult to follow that few can understand it. An abstruse argument, abstruse mathematics, frankly abstruse.
It is a criticism of the writing as often as of the subject, since something abstruse may only have been badly explained. The Latin means pushed away and hidden, which is the sense of knowledge kept out of reach.
1adjectiveabstruseSo difficult to follow that few can understand it.
“The lecture was so abstruse that most of the students gave up taking notes.”
abstruse is a quality.
Latin abstrusus means concealed, from abs plus trudere, to push.
Proto-Indo-European
*trewd- — to push; to thrust
Latin
abstrūsus — concealed, hidden; having been concealed
English, today
abstruse
Built from
Latin abstrūsus (“concealed, hidden; having been concealed”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of abstrūdō (“to conceal, hide; to push or thrust away”), from abs- (from ab-) + trūdō (“to push, shove; to thrust”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European trewd- (“to push; to thrust”)). 2
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA