in petto

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian in petto (“in the chest”).

Adjective

in petto (not comparable)

1. Secret, private.
   • 1837, Capt. Marryat, “Snarleyyow; or, the Dog Fiend”, in The Metropolitan magazine, volume 18, page 18:

     […] it was not unfrequent for a good bargain to be struck with him by one or more of the public functionaries, the difference between the sum proposed and accepted being settled against the interests of Mynheer Krause, by the party putting him in possession of some government movement which hitherto been kept in petto.

   • 1838, “War in Disguise”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, volume 44, number 278, page 718:

     […] in its nine members, stand prominently personified indolence and ignorance consummate, solemn pedantry and petulance in petto, upstart self-conceit and high-born arrogance all-blustering, self-sufficiency all smirking, and solid acres in all their stolidity, the remnant of vigour on crutches, and of saintly talent ever dozing—all this is indeed prophetic of wo to the land.

   • 1979, Frank Edward Manuel, Fritzie Prigohzy Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World, →ISBN, page 271:

     The City of the Sun was a model in petto for the whole earth.

2. (Roman Catholicism) Designated as a cardinal but not yet announced.
   • 1845, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell, “Metternich”, in The Living Age:

     In future you will have the right to dress in red — indeed, you are already cardinal in petto, and you will be proclaimed at the next conclave.

Usage notes

As an adjective, in petto usually follows the noun to be modified.

Synonyms

• (Roman Catholicism): in pectore

Translations

secret, private

• Finnish: salainen (fi)
• Italian: in pectore (it)

Adverb

in petto (not comparable)

1. Privately, in secret.
   • 1831, Thomas Carlyle, “Reminiscences”, in Sartor Resartus: The Life and Opinions of Herr Teufelsdröckh. […], London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC, book first, page 10:

     And yet, thou brave Teufelsdröckh, who could tell what lurked in thee? […] The secrets of man’s Life were laid open to thee; thou sawest into the mystery of the Universe, farther than another; thou hadst in petto thy remarkable Volume on Clothes.

   • 1834 June 7, “News of the Week”, in The Spectator, number 310:

     Ministers and their Majority had a rejoinder in petto, as we have explained above; but it was one which they could not for shame avow, though they voted on the strength of it.

   • 1997, Gérard Genette, Paratext: Thresholds of Interpretation, →ISBN, page 190:

     In the same department as the suspect allographic prefaces we will naturally put many a “Notice from the Publisher [or Editor],” […] which we will meet again and which we have every reason to attribute in petto (but only in petto) to the author.

Synonyms

• (in secret): behind closed doors

Translations

secret, private

• Finnish: salassa (fi)
• French: in petto (fr)
• Italian: in pectore (it)

Anagrams

• neti pot, pentito

Dutch

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian in petto (“in [the] chest”).

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adverb

in petto

1. in store

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian in petto (“in [the] chest”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈpɛto/

• Audio

  (file)

Adverb

in petto

1. (somewhat informal, generally with haben) in store; in reserve; up one's sleeve