Définition de « arcane » en Anglais

adjective

1. Understood by only a few.

   • 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.

   • 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