furtive

English

Etymology

(deprecated template usage)

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈfɜːtɪv/

• Audio (UK):

  noicon

  (file)

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

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

furtive (comparative more furtive, superlative most furtive)

1. Stealthy.
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
• French: furtif (fr), subreptice (fr)
• German: heimlich (de), geheim (de), Tarn- (de)
• Greek: λαθραίος (el) m (lathraíos), κρυφός (el) m (kryfós)
• Italian: furtivo (it)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Latvian: zaglīgs
• Maori: whakamokeke
• 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, petollinen (fi)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Greek: φευγαλέος (el) m (fevgaléos)
• Portuguese: furtivo (pt)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Interlingua: ^{(please verify)} furtive
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kurdish: , ,

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French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /fyʁ.tiv/

Adjective

furtive

1. feminine singular of furtif

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Italian

Adjective

1. (deprecated template usage) Feminine plural of adjective furtivo.

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Latin

Adjective

(deprecated template usage) fūrtīve

1. masculine vocative singular of fūrtīvus

References

• “furtive”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, 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.