While not having come across that word before, I could have guessed it. My son's fascination with dinosaurs when he was little brought struthiomimus into our vocabularies.

"Appellants struthiously ignore the ..."

Did you come across this in a Judge Selya opinion? It sounds like one of his.

KeithK, if you want to see some ratites in their natural state, you should head Down Under, where you might encounter an emu in its natural habitat. Kiwis are few and far between in the wild, but some can be viewed in captivity. Alas, you are too late to see a moa, an enormous ratite that served as a food source for the Maori until they were hunted to extinction. (No big deal to see an ostrich, but don't get too close, since they aren't at all friendly and they can kill you a kick.)

As usual, I advise against using such words ... .

"Such words," meaning words that Eugene Volokh just read that he doesn't know; or words related to ostriches?

Personally I prefer the opposite (and somehow more plausible-sounding) abstruthious.

Also, if the resemblance to an ostrich may be inexact or inaccurate (as with the whole head-in-the-sand metaphor), one can forsake the technical term and evoke a gut feeling of ostrich-resemblance with struthiness.

There's a view in metaphysics that's been derisively called ostrich nominalism, because it supposedly involves sticking your head in the sand and avoiding the central question that a nominalist view about universals is supposed to answer. So I suppose this could be called struthious nominalism.

I can think of a context when it's perfectly appropriate to use words that you have no expectation your readers will know. In a blog post, it could certainly be fun to include a word like this with a link to something defining it. The link takes care of the ignorance problem.

John Burgess--That's great! I'm a paleontology nut. And when I saw the word on this post, I guessed its meaning immediately, due to 'struthiomimus.' ("Ostrich-mimic" is a name that sticks with you.)

But the BEST dino name is still "Irritator." Although it won't help you guess recondite vocab.

Possibly "Of or pertaining to Sally Struthers?" Surely she is, um, memorable enough to have earned a word of her own?

Hoosier, there are a few words that when I see them, I recall how/when/where I first encountered them, "recondite" being one of them.

I was reviewing a case in which the petitioner's expert asserted that there had been a "recondite" encephalopathy. I was reasonably confident about the "encephalopathy" part, that being neurologist talk for brain dysfunction, usually global, without regard to the particular etiology, if any could be identified. I wasn't sure about the "recondite" part though. And after I looked the word up, I was truly perplexed. This hired gun, who like I was relying entirely upon medical records with no actual experience of the child, was saying that this sort of medical condition would be "difficult or impossible for one of ordinary understanding or knowledge to comprehend." I could see no evidence in the records of any sort to support "encephalopathy," and their expert just pronounced it a "recondite encephalopathy" without citing anything at all to support that medical assertion. What was I to do, say that I couldn't see it and confirm that I was someone of at best ordinary understanding or knowledge, the professional inferior of this expert who had the capacity to perceive what a lesser mortal like myself didn't even suspect?

I closed the dictionary, pondered the implications for a moment or two, then pronounced it crap like so many of the expert reports offered in connection with compensation claims. But I did come away with "recondite," and I still have it, though recondite stuff may be going past me all the time, and I wouldn't know because I am oblivious to the recondite?!

I just checked with my roommate who grew up on an ostrich farm. He'd never heard the word, so I don't really feel too bad about not knowing it.

neurodoc--"What was I to do, say that I couldn't see it and confirm that I was someone of at best ordinary understanding or knowledge, the professional inferior of this expert who had the capacity to perceive what a lesser mortal like myself didn't even suspect?" Wow. The Emperor's New Clothes isn't just a kids tale, I suppose.

Recondite illness or disability? This sounds like some sort of dare: "I just DARE you to say that you don't see this problem." Good for you for playing chicken with being chicken. (To keep the avian thing going.)

Regarding large, flightless birds, here's a story from my native town (A fact that I've never before admitted on VC. But I'm not a *native-born* Hoosier. Shh. Don't tell.) The job in the sub-head may or may not exist. But whether it does or does not, I bet it is nevertheless the *best job in the world*!

http://www.nbc5.com/news/3940898/detail.html

A fact that I've never before admitted on VC. But I'm not a *native-born* Hoosier. Shh. Don't tell.

You were waiting for Kurt Vonnegut to die before revealing that, weren't you?

And yes, I did see myself as like the kid who called it as he saw it, while others around him couldn't bring themselves to say that the emperor was buck naked. But then I thought that others might have been sure of the meaning of "recondite" and not needed to consult a dictionary, or not knowing the word's meaning and not caring simply pronounced the "recondite encephalopathy"* claim unmitigated BS without even a split second pause. I did ask some very smart colleagues for their thoughts about the notion of a "recondite" encephalopathy, but they just looked at me uncomprehendingly and I dropped it. I am encouraged to know that you Hoosier, with your most impressive mind, can appreciate the dilemma I found myself in and think I handled it correctly.

*to be sure there are times when an etiologic diagnosis can't be made, but there either is a physiological (or anatomic) derangement or there isn't, of profoundly severe all the way down to relatively mild or subtle, but when you can't point to abnormal findings, "recondite" doesn't do it.

I'd rather struther than strut; law school has helped me druthers, but exams have hidden me guts.