Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition (2004) says:
oblivion, n.
2. a. The state or condition of being forgotten; (also, more generally) obscurity, nothingness, void, death.
However, what makes me puzzled is that although I've ever seen many times the word is used in such ways, I had had a hard time trying to find this definition, for almost every other dictionary I consulted didn't seem to refer to this sense, including the immediately previous version (1989) of OED:
oblivion, n.
2. a. The state or condition of being forgotten. (Hence many phrases and fig. expressions.)
My questions are:
- Is the sense like "obscurity, nothingness, void, death" emerging (or recognized) this recently?
- Is it a unique connotation tied to oblivion, or generally carried by the concept of "forgottenness" in English (or, perhaps European) language so that they don't need to clarify?