enigma

What it means

1. countableuncountableSomething or someone puzzling, mysterious or inexplicable.

   I was, and still am, an enigma to myself.

   1894, Abram H. Dailey, Mollie Fancher, the Brooklyn Enigma, page 66

   5 more examples

   At the heart of all things there is to be found a certain coincidentia oppositorum; and herein, as I have said, lies the key to our problem: the enigma of indeterminism. The astounding fact is that freedom and necessity can coexist;

   1995, Wolfgang Smith, The Quantum Enigma: Finding the Hidden Key, page 92

   Tucked inconspicuously away behind the shoal of darkness that hung in those gloomy corners, the silhouetted enigma was ogling him in halcyon silence.

   2007, Ramon Elmerito Gatchalian, A Supernatural Threat, page 9

   But as he came to know this work during his last months, he also came to a profound understanding of the many enigmas that create a deeply satisfying life.

   2007, Fernando Arrojo Ramos, Enigmas

   The enigma that is central to homeopathic medicine has to do with the relationship between dilution and potency.

   2009, Vinton McCabe, The Healing Enigma: Demystifying Homeopathy

   The 'Real' Borges is difficult to pin down; in a word, he is an enigma.

   2021, Cynthia Lucy Stephens, The Borges Enigma: Mirrors, Doubles, and Intimate Puzzles, page 6

2. countableuncountableA riddle, or a difficult problem.

   Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy, begin.

   1598, William Shakespeare, Loves Labour's Lost

   5 more examples

   This little story before us is an amplification of that clever enigma, and though essentially a story for children, as its title-page tells us, would beguile many a one much older of a half-hour in the evening.

   1879, Henry C. Linstead, The marvellous house; or, The bishop's enigma, page 91

   Watching a coast as it slips by the ship is like thinking about an enigma.

   1899 February, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number M, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part I, page 202

   Logic sorts the information in an enigma, logic determines that something is odd about this information, and logic draws inferences from an enigma's words; but logic cannot produce ideas.

   2005, Jenny Ledeen, Prophecy in the Christian Era, page 165

   The other solution to the central enigma of wormhold physics is to simply discard Thales' doctrine.

   2010, Enrico Rodrigo, The Physics of Stargates, page 323

   The function of polyphenol oxidase in plants is an enigma because, although it is localized in the plastid, most of the phenolic compounds are in the vacuole, a cellular location not juxtaposed to the plastid.

   2013, Tilak Nagodawithana, Gerald Reed, Enzymes in Food Processing, page 222

3. countableuncountableRiddles and puzzles, collectively.

   From the beginning, readers of The Enigma of Arrival are likely to feel surrounded by enigma and puzzle.

   2000, Harish Trivedi, Richard Allen, Literature and Nation, page 147

   2 more examples

   These examples show that two processes are tested in enigma - logic and intuition. It is intuition that discovers the specific idea that may be called the “ wisdom ” of a given riddle, whereas logic is confounded by enigma and can only produce inadequate interpretations.

   2005, Jenny Ledeen, Prophecy in the Christian Era, page 165

   It was her secret, which she shared with no one except Alec Malone. Her husband would not have understood. Invisible wounds were not in his inventory of useful patents. He had even less interest in enigma.

   2010, Ward Just, Exiles in the Garden, page 162

In a sentence

I was, and still am, an enigma to myself.

1894, Abram H. Dailey, Mollie Fancher, the Brooklyn Enigma, page 66

Where it comes from

1. Latinaenigma“riddle”
2. Englishenigma

From Latin aenigma (“riddle”), being derived itself from the Ancient Greek verbal noun αἴνιγμα (aínigma, “dark saying, speaking in riddles”).