arcane

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin arcānus (“hidden, secret”), from arceō (“to shut up, enclose”); cognate with Latin arca (“a chest”).

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ɑɹˈkeɪn/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -eɪn

Adjective

arcane (comparative more arcane, superlative most arcane)

1. Understood by only a few.

   Synonym: esoteric

   Antonym: mundane

   arcane rituals

   arcane knowledge

   The professor’s lecture was full of arcane references.

   The manuscript contained arcane symbols no one could decipher.

   He had an arcane knowledge of ancient rituals.

2. (by extension) Obscure, mysterious.

   Synonyms: enigmatic, esoteric, recondite, clandestine

   arcane origins

   arcane details

3. Requiring secret or mysterious knowledge to understand.
   • 1997: Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, page 67, The Renaissance Episteme (Totem Books, Icon Books; →ISBN

     A “signature” was placed on all things by God to indicate their affinities — but it was hidden, hence the search for arcane knowledge. Knowing was guessing and interpreting, not observing or demonstrating.

4. Extremely old (e.g. interpretation or knowledge), and possibly irrelevant.

   an arcane law

Derived terms

• arcanely
• arcaneness
• arcanist
• arcanity
• arcanology
• superarcane

Related terms

English terms derived from the Proto-Indo-European root *h₂erk- (0 c, 10 e)

Translations

understood by only a few; obscure

Bulgarian: тайнствен (bg) (tajnstven), езотеричен (bg) (ezoteričen) Catalan: arcà (ca) m, secret (ca) m Czech: tajuplný, tajemný (cs) Dutch: geheim (nl), duister (nl) Esperanto: arkana (eo) Finnish: salainen (fi) French: arcane (fr) German: geheim (de), geheimnisvoll (de), obskur (de), arkan (de) Greek: απόκρυφος (el) m (apókryfos), μυστικός (el) m (mystikós) Icelandic: hulinn m, dulinn m Italian: arcano (it) Latin: arcānus Persian: سری (fa) (serriyy) Portuguese: arcano (pt) Russian: та́йный (ru) (tájnyj), таи́нственный (ru) (taínstvennyj), мисти́ческий (ru) (mistíčeskij), скры́тый (ru) (skrýtyj) Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: таја̀нствен, ми̏стерио̄зан Roman: tajànstven (sh), mȉsteriōzan (sh) Spanish: arcano (es), secreto (es), misterioso (es) Swedish: esoterisk (sv), mystisk (sv), hemlig (sv), fördold (sv), svårtillgänglig (sv), sekret (sv) (antiquated; if used, only in old remnants (ca. –1900) of public administration and law), hemlighetsfull (sv) Turkish: esrarlı (tr), gizemli (tr), saklı (tr), içrek (tr) Ukrainian: таємний m (tajemnyj), прихований m (pryxovanyj), містичний (mistyčnyj)

Further reading

• “arcane”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “arcane”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “arcane”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Anagrams

• carane

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aʁ.kan/

• Audio (France (Lyon)):

  (file)

Adjective

arcane (plural arcanes)

1. (dated) arcane, secret, mysterious

Noun

arcane m (plural arcanes)

1. (chiefly in the plural) mysteries, arcanum

Further reading

• “arcane”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Italian

Adjective

arcane

1. feminine plural of arcano

Anagrams

• Aracne, Carena, aracne, arance, carena, carnea, rancea

Latin

Pronunciation

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key): [arˈkaː.nɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): [arˈkaː.ne]

Adjective

arcāne

1. vocative masculine singular of arcānus

Anagrams

• ancrae