Citations:confuscate

English citations of confuscate

Etymological speculation

• 2003 May 13, "Bob Badour" (username) and "Daniel S. Guntermann" (username), "Transactions: good or bad?", in comp.databases.theory, Usenet:

  That's because your dictionary thinks confuscated has something to do with seizing things by force omitting the contraction of "complicated obfuscation". Silly dictionary!

  [...]

  Geez. I stand corrected. I was assuming it was the contraction for "confused obfuscation." :-)

Verb: confuse: mistake (one thing for another)

• 1955, Nigel Forbes Dennis, Cards of Identity, page 268:

  Prince: I think it was a venal sin of us

  To confuscate their piety for play.

Verb: confusticate: confuse, confound, perplex

• 1974 Fall, volume 1, number 1, William Carlos Williams Newsletter:

  But Riddel is exasperatingly casual with literary periodization, for midway through the book he says that "a poetry about poetry" defines "the Romantic journey." To further confuscate matters, Williams' accession to this "post-Modern" title is neutralized in abstruse modifications.

• 1998, Terry C. Johnston, Ashes of Heaven, page 146:

  There was no deliberation to it, no confuscating deliberation to it at all! But having to decide between the two dresses was another matter altogether.

• 2003 December 19, "Julie" (username), "Web Site Critique", in rec.climbing, Usenet:

  It seems like you have (at least) 3 different ways of getting to your beta - the "search", those clickable ink smudges, and (what I finally found first:) the "view all locations" text. This is confuscating. The "search" text should be empty to start with - it's not obvious that I can enter my own text (never mind that "gunks" turned up nada).

• 2011, Matthew C. R. Craven, What's in a Name? The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Issues of Statehood, first published in 1995 in the 16th Australian Year Book of International Law (199), republished in International Law: Cases and Materials with Australian Perspectives by Donald R. Rothwell, Stuart Kaye, Afshin Akhtarkhavari, and Ruth Davis, page 248:

  For practical purposes, the distinction between the constitutive and declaratory theories of recognition is often of only marginal importance and frequently serves to confuscate rather than elucidate.

Verb: obfuscate

• * 2000 June 28, "Nobody" (username), "ESTHER NOT INSPIRED - LXX COMPARED TO HEBREW VERSION", in alt.religion.watchtower-reform, Usenet:

  It now must be a question of wonderment whether or not the attraction of the revised chronology to post 70CE Jews was that it confuscated the chronology that would show that the Messiah was to arrive in 29CE, 483 years after the return of the Jews to Jerusalem in 455BCE.

Verb (or past participle=adjective): complicate

• 1991 April 23, "Jeff Poulin" (username), "new password idea", in comp.unix.wizards, Usenet:

  No matter how confuscated your password may be, it still boils down to a guessing game between you and the cracker.

• 2000 July 20, "Agelmar" (username), "Print@Kodak", in rec.photo.digital, Usenet:

  Aaaah, point taken. But good code is confuscated :-) Don't want everyone copying you :P But seriously, it is extremely easy to distinguish between a Frontpage dime-a-dozen person and a notepad professional.

• 2003 July 7, "LibMind" (username), "Vote for Jesus in 2004, not Bush, because...", in alt.christnet.christianlife, Usenet:

  The truth is Paul's directive confuscates the doctrine of the true Christ and is best ignored [...]