Obscure

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c. 1400, "dark," figuratively "morally unenlightened; gloomy," from Old French obscur, oscur "dark, clouded, gloomy; dim, not clear" (12c.) and directly from Latin obscurus "dark, dusky, shady," figuratively "unknown; unintelligible; hard to discern; from insignificant ancestors," from ob "over" (see ob-) + -scurus "covered," from PIE root *(s)keu- "to cover, conceal."

obscure(晦涩的，鲜为人知的)，前缀ob表“over，在...上面”，词根scurus和sky同PIE*skeu表“覆盖”，字面义“上面被遮盖住”，引申为“昏暗的”，进一步“鲜为人知的”。

而obscure的拉丁语形式obscurus还有“黑暗的”的意思，毕竟上面被遮盖住。Camera其实是camera obscura的缩写，camera即chamber(小房间)，camera obscura字面义dark chamber，即暗室。原本指的是一种光学仪器，由小盒子和棱镜组成，用于研究小孔成像等光学问题，科学家开普勒最早使用这个术语。18世纪初期，光学照相机问世后，由于它很像一个camera obscura，所以人们将其称为camera obscura。后来，当照相机流行后，人们将其简称为camera。