English
obfuscate
Obfuscate may come from Middle French obfusquer.
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600obfusqueruncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1531obfuscate
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor
Earlier history uncertain.
Lineage
- Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600obfusqueruncertain
- Englishearliest quotation 1531obfuscate
Earliest quotation: 1531, Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour […]: “Also the vertues beynge in a cruell persone be…”
first attested first attested in 1487 (as stated in the etymology)
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *dʰewh₂- ‘smoke’
down, steam, dye, dew, funk, dun, dune, duvet, dag, fume, thymus, typhon, fumigation, 27 more
Today it means
verb To make dark; to overshadow.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Middle French obfusquer / obfuscate