incognito

Etymology

It is borrowed from Italian incognito (“unknown, disguised”),^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Latin incognitus (“unknown, not investigated”),^[3][2][4] formed from in- (“not”) and cognitus (“known”), the past participle of cognōscō (“to get to know”).^{[3][4][5][6][7]} In Italian it was used especially of travelling.^[3][8] Barnhart thinks it probably came through French incognito, because English sounds the g, which is silent in Italian.^[7] The Latin verb is also the source of cognition, cognizance and quaint.^[4][7][9]

Earliest recorded meaning

Merriam-Webster dates the adjective, with one's identity concealed, to 1635,^[10] and the noun, a person who conceals his identity, to 1638;^[10] the OED's first record is that noun, in 1638, in R. Baker's translation of Balzac's New Epistles.^[2] Etymonline dates both adjective and adverb to the 1640s and the noun to the 1630s.^[3] A quotation of 1652 explains it as the manner in which the grandees of Italy travel, "which they call Incognito".^[2]

Semantic evolution

At first the word was used mainly of royal persons and dignitaries who travelled under another name so as not to be officially received;^[2][11][10] the adverb is first recorded in this use in 1649, in John Evelyn's writings.^[2][7] Johnson (1755) entered it as an adverb, "in a state of concealment", quoting Prior's line that gods once came down incognito.^[12] The adjective, of a person whose identity is concealed, is recorded from 1676, in Etherege's The Man of Mode, and of a thing done in disguise from 1819.^[2] The noun for the state of being unknown, or for a disguise or assumed character, appears in 1822, in Hazlitt, at first in the phrase in incognito.^[2] Those who kept to Latin grammar used the feminine incognita for a woman through the 19th century,^[3] and the clipped incog was a common colloquialism from about 1700.^[3][9][8]

Timeline

• 1635 – adjective, with one's identity concealed.^[10]
• 1638 – noun, an unknown person who conceals his identity.^[2][10]
• 1649 – adverb, under an undisclosed name or rank, especially of royal persons.^[2][7]
• c. 1700 – the clipped form incog.^[8]
• 1819 – of a thing, done in disguise.^[2]
• 1822 – noun, the condition of being unknown; a disguise or assumed character.^[2]

Meanings

Adverb

1. With one's true identity hidden, under an assumed name or in disguise: The film star flew to Lisbon incognito.^[13][10][2]
2. Of a notable person: not in an official capacity, without the ceremony due to one's rank.^[10][2]

Adjective

1. Having one's identity concealed; disguised or unidentified.^[13][10][2]

Noun

1. A person who is living or appearing incognito.^[13][10][2]
2. The assumed name, character or disguise of such a person, or the state of being incognito.^[13][10][2]

Related words

• incognita
• incog
• cognition
• cognizance
• quaint
• know

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
6. ^ a b Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
7. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
8. ^ a b c Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
9. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
10. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
11. ^ Soanes, Catherine; Stevenson, Angus, eds. (2004), Concise Oxford English Dictionary, 11th ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
13. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins