Word: obtuse Part of Speech: adj Etymology: From Middle English obtuse, from Latin obtūsus (“blunt, dull; obtuse”), past participle of obtundere, from obtundō (“to batter, beat, strike; to blunt, dull”), from ob- (“against”) (see ob-) + tundō (“to beat, strike; to bruise, crush, pound”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *(s)tewd-, from *(s)tew- (“to hit; to push”)). More at obtund. Pronunciation: /əbˈtjuːs/, /-ˈtʃuːs/, /əbˈt(j)us/, /ɑb-/ 1. Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form. Example: For we see a Feather or a Rush drawn along the Lip or Cheek, doth tickle; whereas a thing more obtuse, or a touch more hard, doth not. Example: See then the quiver broken and decay'd, / In which are kept our arrows! Rusting there / In wild disorder, and unfit for use, / […] Their points obtuse, and feathers drunk with wine! 2. Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form. Example: The Herb Pantagruelion hath a little Root somewhat hard and ruff, roundish, terminating in an obtuse and very blunt Point, and having some of its Veins, Strings or Filaments coloured with some spots of white, […] 3. Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form. Labels: specifically Example: If you put foure Spleets in a Hiue, then cut their backes, where they must leane one against another, to square angles, such as be foure in a circle: if but three, cut them to obtuse angles, such as are three in a circle: (you may readily try them, before you put them in, by Moulds made iust to those formes) and so will they stand close and firme together. Example: More-over, as the Buildings Ambligon / May more receive then Mansions Oxigon / (Because th' acute, and the rect-Angles too, / Stride not so wide as obtuse Angles doe) / So doth the Circle in his Circuit span / More room then any other Figure can. 4. Blunt; not sharp, pointed, or acute in form. Example: Unless A lies in that part of a semi-infinite strip bounded by AB outside a semi-circle of diameter AB, the triangle is obtuse, so that the probability of getting an obtuse triangle is equal to 1. 5. Intellectually dull or dim-witted. Example: It was a merry time with Carrmen, Watermen, & Porters: for in this Eclipſe, many of them did nothing but drinke, domineere, and ſwagger in Alehouſes; but the often going to and fro of the Pot, made them talke of that, which they had nothing to doe withall, and many times their obtuſe apprehenſions would be medling with the warres betwixt the great Turke and Preſter Iohn, how it was likely to end; […] Example: When the elder Osborne gave what he called "a hint," there was no possibility for the most obtuse to mistake his meaning. He called kicking a footman downstairs a hint to the latter to leave his service. 6. Of sound, etc.: deadened, muffled, muted. Example: The ſenſe of the inteſtines, if exquiſite, wants a more gentle remedie; and if dull, a ſtronger: Alſo the ſenſes of the inteſtines are perceived by the courſe of diet; for thoſe that feed upon muſtard, or the like biting and more ſharp meat, without trouble, are of a more obtuſe ſenſe; but thoſe of an exact ſenſe, which preſently perceive the mordacity; and thoſe that are of a mean ſenſe, want a mean doſe. Example: Another addition in Mr. [Joseph Emerson] Worcester's key to the same letter [e] is what he calls the short and obtuse sound, as in her, herd, fern, fervid. Some of these, also, for the sake of indicating the true sound, [John] Walker was obliged to spell with a different vowel. Thus her is directed to be pronounced hur, like u in tub. 7. Indirect or circuitous. Example: […] The Conchologist's First Book intends to do something different by describing both the shell and the soft parts of each creature together. The claim seems awfully trivial, I admit, and [Edgar Allan] Poe does press his point only by the obtuse route of stressing an expansion of terminology, from the traditional "conchology" (literally the study of shells, as retained in the title) to "malacology" (or the study of the entire organism—for the animals within the hard shells consist almost entirely of soft parts,[…]).