furtive

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French furtif (“stealthy”), from Latin fūrtīvus (“stolen”), from fūrtum (“theft”), from fūr (“thief”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈfɜːtɪv/

• Audio (UK)

  (file)

• (General Australian) IPA^(key): [ˈfɜːɾɪv]
• (US) IPA^(key): [ˈfɝ.ɽɪv]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɜːtɪv

Adjective

furtive (comparative more furtive, superlative most furtive)

1. Stealthy.
   • 1967, J. A. Baker, The Peregrine, page 41:

     Gluttonous, hoarding jay; he should have hedge-hopped and lurched from tree to tree in his usual furtive manner.

2. Exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy.
   • 1949, George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four, p31

     But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control.

Synonyms

• (stealthy): surreptitious
• See also Thesaurus:covert

Derived terms

• furtively
• furtiveness

Related terms

• ferret

Translations

stealthy

• Bulgarian: скрит (bg) (skrit), прикрит (bg) (prikrit)
• Czech: kradmý
• Dutch: heimelijk (nl), steels (nl), furtief
• Finnish: vaivihkainen (fi)
• French: furtif (fr), subreptice (fr)
• German: heimlich (de), geheim (de), Tarn- (de)
• Greek: λαθραίος (el) m (lathraíos), κρυφός (el) m (kryfós)
• Italian: furtivo (it)

• Latin: furtīvus
• Latvian: zaglīgs
• Maori: whakamokeke
• Plautdietsch: heemlich
• Portuguese: furtivo (pt)
• Russian: скры́тный (ru) (skrýtnyj)
• Spanish: furtivo (es), sigiloso (es)
• Tagalog: alimis
• Tajik: ноаён (tg) (noayon)

exhibiting guilty or evasive secrecy

• Bulgarian: потаен (bg) (potaen)
• Dutch: heimelijk (nl), diefachtig (nl), steels (nl), furtief
• Finnish: vaivihkainen (fi), petollinen (fi)

• Greek: φευγαλέος (el) m (fevgaléos)
• Latin: furtīvus
• Portuguese: furtivo (pt)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} furtive

• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: ^{(please verify)} dizîkî (ku), ^{(please verify)} nehînî (ku), ^{(please verify)} razberî (ku)

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fyʁ.tiv/

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

furtive

1. feminine singular of furtif

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Italian

Adjective

furtive

1. feminine plural of furtivo

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Latin

Adjective

fūrtīve

1. masculine vocative singular of fūrtīvus

References

• “furtive”, in Charlton T[homas] Lewis; Charles [Lancaster] Short (1879) […] A New Latin Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Chicago, Ill.: American Book Company; Oxford: Clarendon Press.
• “furtive”, in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• furtive in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette