secret

Etymology

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]}.

Displaced native Middle English diȝel "secret" (from Old English dīegol "secret"), Middle English derne, deorne "dark, hidden, secret" (from Old English dierne "dark, hidden, secret"), Middle English roune, rowne "secret, secret counsel" (from Old English rūn), Middle English hidel "secrecy, secret" (from Old English hȳdels "hiding-stow").

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːkɹɪt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Hyphenation: se‧cret

Noun

secret (countable and uncountable, plural secrets)

1. (countable, uncountable) Knowledge that is hidden and intended to be kept hidden. [from later 14th c.]

   Can you keep a secret? So can I.

   • Rambler

     To tell our secrets is often folly; to communicate those of others is treachery.

   • 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.

2. (uncountable) Something not understood or known.
   • Milton

     All secrets of the deep, all nature's works.

3. (archaic, in the plural) The genital organs.

Adjective

secret (comparative more secret, superlative most secret)

1. Being or kept hidden. [from late 14th c.]

   We went down a secret passage.

   • Bible, Deuteronomy xxix. 29

     The secret things belong unto the Lord our God; but those things which are revealed belong unto us.

   • 1963, Margery Allingham, chapter 1, in The China Governess‎:

     The original family who had begun to build a palace to rival 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.

2. (obsolete) Withdrawn from general intercourse or notice; in retirement or secrecy; secluded.
   • 1674, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book I, lines 6–10:

     Sing Heav'nly Muse, that on the secret top

     Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire

     That Shepherd, who first taught the chosen Seed,

     In the Beginning how the Heav'ns and Earth

     Rose out of Chaos:

   • Fenton

     secret in her sapphire cell

   • Robert Louis Stevenson, Kidnapped

     “He was a secret man, Alexander — a secret, silent man,” he continued.

3. (obsolete) Faithful to a secret; not inclined to divulge or betray confidence; secretive, separate, apart.
   • Shakespeare

     Secret Romans, that have spoke the word, / And will not palter.

4. (obsolete) Separate; distinct.
   • Cudworth

     They suppose two other divine hypostases superior thereunto, which were perfectly secret from matter.

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)

1. (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.

2. (transitive) To hide secretly.

   He was so scared for his safety he secreted arms around the house.

References

• “†ˈsecret, v.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary [2^nd 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

• Cretes, certes, erects, resect, terces

Etymology

From Latin secretus.

Adjective

secret (feminine secreta, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)

1. secret

Noun

secret m (plural secrets)

1. secret

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sə.kʁɛ/

• audio

  (file)

Etymology 1

From Middle French secret, from Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētus.

Etymology 2

From Old French secret, borrowed from Latin secrētum.

Anagrams

• certes, crêtes, terces

Further reading

• “secret” in le Trésor de la langue française informatisé (The Digitized Treasury of the French Language).

Etymology

From Old French secret.

Adjective

secret m (feminine singular secrete, masculine plural secrets, feminine plural secretes)

1. secret

Etymology

Borrowed from French secret, Latin secretum, secretus. Doublet of săcret, which was inherited.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈkret/

Noun

secret n (plural secrete)

1. secret

Adjective

secret m, n (feminine singular secretă, masculine plural secreți, feminine and neuter plural secrete)

1. secret, hidden