secret
English
Etymology
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(deprecated template usage) From Middle English secrette, borrowed from Old French secret, from Latin sēcrētus (“separated, hidden”), from ptp of sēcernō (“separate, to set aside, sunder out”), from Latin cernō[1], from Proto-Indo-European *krey- [2] [3].
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈsiːkɹɪt/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "weak vowel" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈsiːkɹət/
- Lua error in Module:parameters at line 290: Parameter 1 should be a valid language or etymology language code; the value "obsolete" is not valid. See WT:LOL and WT:LOL/E. IPA(key): /ˈsiːkɹɛt/
Audio (US): (file) - Hyphenation: se‧cret
Noun
secret (countable and uncountable, plural secrets)
- (countable) A piece of knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
- "Can you keep a secret?" "Yes." "So can I."
- (Can we date this quote by Rambler and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- To tell our secrets is often folly; to communicate those of others is treachery.
- 1822 May 29, [Walter Scott], chapter VIII, in The Fortunes of Nigel. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC, page 216:
- Well, mistress, I am sorry this is a matter I cannot aid you in—it goes against my conscience, and it is an affair above my condition, and beyond my management;—but I will keep your secret.
- 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
- Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
- 2014, Thomas Feller, Trustworthy Reconfigurable Systems:
- The storage of cryptographic secrets is one of the paramount requirements in building trustworthy systems.
- The key or principle by which something is made clear; the knack.
- The secret to a long-lasting marriage is compromise.
- Something not understood or known.
- (Can we date this quote by Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- All secrets of the deep, all nature's works.
- (Can we date this quote by Milton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- (uncountable) Private seclusion.
- The work was done in secret, so that nobody could object.
- (archaic, in the plural) The genital organs.
- (historical) A form of steel skullcap.
- (Christianity, often in the plural) Any prayer spoken inaudibly and not aloud; especially, one of the prayers in the Mass, immediately following the "orate, fratres", said inaudibly by the celebrant.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Descendants
Translations
Adjective
secret (comparative more secret, superlative most secret)
- Being or kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]
- We went down a secret passage.
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 29:29:
- The ſecret things belong unto the Lord our God; but thoſe things which are reuealed belong unto us, and to our children for euer, that wee may doe all the words of this Law.
- 1963, Margery Allingham, “The Elopers”, in The China Governess: A Mystery, London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, page 25:
- The original family who had begun to build a palace to outrival Nonesuch had died out before they had put up little more than the gateway, so that the actual structure which had come down to posterity retained the secret magic of a promise rather than the overpowering splendour of a great architectural achievement.
- (obsolete) Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
- Lua error in Module:quote at line 3245: Parameter "url" is not used by this template.
- (Can we date this quote by Fenton and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- secret in her sapphire cell
- 1886 May 1 – July 31, Robert Louis Stevenson, “I Make Acquaintance of My Uncle”, in Kidnapped, being Memoirs of the Adventures of David Balfour in the Year 1751: […], London; Paris: Cassell & Company, published 1886, →OCLC, page 19:
- "He was a secret man, Alexander—a secret, silent man," he continued.
- (obsolete) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive, separate, apart.
- 1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i], page 115, column 1:
- What neede we any ſpurre, but our owne cauſe / To pricke vs to redreſſe? What other Bond / Than ſecret Romans, that haue ſpoke the Word, / And will not palter?
- (obsolete) Separate; distinct.
- (Can we date this quote by Cudworth and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
- They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.
- (Can we date this quote by Cudworth and provide title, author’s full name, and other details?)
Alternative forms
- secrette (obsolete)
Synonyms
- see Thesaurus:hidden and Thesaurus:covert
Antonyms
Derived terms
Related terms
Translations
Verb
secret (third-person singular simple present secrets, present participle (UK) secretting or (US) secreting, simple past and past participle (UK) secretted or (US) secreted)
- (transitive) To make or keep secret. [from late 16th c.]
- 1984, Peter Scott Lawrence, Around the mulberry tree, Firefly Books, p. 26
- [...] she would unfold the silk, press it with a smooth wooden block that she'd heated in the oven, and then once more secret it away.
- 1986, InfoWorld, InfoWorld Media Group, Inc.
- Diskless workstations [...] make it difficult for individuals to copy information [...] onto a diskette and secret it away.
- 1994, Phyllis Granoff & Koichi Shinohara, Monks and magicians: religious biographies in Asia, Mosaic Press, p. 50
- To prevent the elixir from reaching mankind and thereby upsetting the balance of the universe, two gods secret it away.
- 1984, Peter Scott Lawrence, Around the mulberry tree, Firefly Books, p. 26
- (transitive) To hide secretly.
- He was so scared for his safety he secreted arms around the house.
Usage notes
- All other dictionaries label this sense 'obsolete', but the citations above and on the citations page demonstrate recent usage as part of the idiom "secret [something] away".
- The present participle and past forms secreting and secreted are liable to confusion with the corresponding heteronymous forms of the similar verb secrete.
Quotations
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:secret.
Derived terms
References
- “†ˈsecret, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2nd Ed.; 1989]
Tagged as obsolete. Notes: “In the inflected forms it is not easy to distinguish between ˈsecret and secrete v.” - “Se"cret (?), v. t.” listed on page 1,301 of Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
Se"cret (?), v. t. To keep secret. [Obs.] Bacon.
Anagrams
Catalan
Etymology
Adjective
secret (feminine secreta, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)
Noun
secret m (plural secrets)
French
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
From Middle French secret, from Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētus.
Adjective
secret (feminine secrète, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secrètes)
Etymology 2
From Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētum.
Noun
secret m (plural secrets)
Descendants
- → Romanian: secret
Anagrams
Further reading
- “secret”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Middle French
Etymology
From Old French secret.
Adjective
secret m (feminine singular secrete, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)
Descendants
Romanian
Etymology
Borrowed from French secret, Latin secretum, secretus. Doublet of săcret, which was inherited.
Pronunciation
Noun
secret n (plural secrete)
Declension
singular | plural | |||
---|---|---|---|---|
indefinite articulation | definite articulation | indefinite articulation | definite articulation | |
nominative/accusative | (un) secret | secretul | (niște) secrete | secretele |
genitive/dative | (unui) secret | secretului | (unor) secrete | secretelor |
vocative | secretule | secretelor |
Synonyms
Adjective
secret m or n (feminine singular secretă, masculine plural secreți, feminine and neuter plural secrete)
Declension
singular | plural | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
masculine | neuter | feminine | masculine | neuter | feminine | ||
nominative/ accusative |
indefinite | secret | secretă | secreți | secrete | ||
definite | secretul | secreta | secreții | secretele | |||
genitive/ dative |
indefinite | secret | secrete | secreți | secrete | ||
definite | secretului | secretei | secreților | secretilor |
Synonyms
Related terms
- English terms inherited from Middle English
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms borrowed from Old French
- English terms derived from Old French
- English terms derived from Latin
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
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- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with usage examples
- Requests for date/Rambler
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- Requests for date/Milton
- English terms with archaic senses
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- en:Christianity
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- Requests for date/Fenton
- Requests for date/Cudworth
- English verbs
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- Catalan terms derived from Latin
- Catalan lemmas
- Catalan adjectives
- Catalan nouns
- Catalan countable nouns
- Catalan masculine nouns
- French 2-syllable words
- French terms with IPA pronunciation
- French terms with audio links
- French terms inherited from Middle French
- French terms derived from Middle French
- French terms inherited from Old French
- French terms derived from Old French
- French terms borrowed from Latin
- French terms derived from Latin
- French lemmas
- French adjectives
- French nouns
- French countable nouns
- French masculine nouns
- Middle French terms inherited from Old French
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