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“secrets”
1. Known by only a few people and intentionally withheld from general knowledge: "I want to tell you a secret, but you must promise not to tell anyone else."
2. Keeping information hidden from other people or to very few people and consequently quiet and secluded: "They lived in a secret location of the suburbs."
3. A special or unusual way of doing something to achieve a good result: "She shared her beauty secrets with the small group."
4. Something which cannot be explained: "There are many secrets of the universe and even of many aspects of nature here on Earth."
5. Etymology: anything that is secret is "separated" from others; hence, "put out of the way, hidden".
2. Keeping information hidden from other people or to very few people and consequently quiet and secluded: "They lived in a secret location of the suburbs."
3. A special or unusual way of doing something to achieve a good result: "She shared her beauty secrets with the small group."
4. Something which cannot be explained: "There are many secrets of the universe and even of many aspects of nature here on Earth."
5. Etymology: anything that is secret is "separated" from others; hence, "put out of the way, hidden".
The word comes via Old French secret from Latin secretus, an adjectival use of the past participle of secernere, "to separate". This was a compound verb formed from the prefix se-, "apart" and cernere, "to separate".
From the 16th to the 18th centuries, secret was used as a verb, meaning "to hide", but it was then altered to secrete, based on the model of Latin secretus.
This entry is located in the following units:
cern-, cert-, cer-; cret-, creet-, cre-
(page 4)
se-
(page 1)
A unit related to:
“secrets”
(Greek: hidden, secret, secrets, secret writing; by extension, applied to secret code or ciphers)