secrecy

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English secretee (“quality of being secret”),^[2][3][4] formed from Middle English secre + -tee,^[3][5][6] or from secret with the same suffix.^[7][6][8] The adjective secre is from Old French secré, a variant of secret,^[2][3][4] from Latin sēcrētus.^[4] Late in the 16th century the ending was changed to -cy,^[7][3] apparently after words such as primacy in the OED's view,^[7][2] and probably after privacy according to the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English.^[8][9] Barnhart notes that such changes of suffix were common in early modern English.^[10][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

The quality of being secret or of keeping secrets: 1423, in the Kingis Quair.^[7] Barnhart dates the form secretee to about 1415, in a version of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, and the form secrecy to 1573.^[3]

Semantic evolution

The word first named the habit of keeping things secret, and since 1563 also the state of being hidden, as in the phrase in secrecy.^[7] In the 15th century it could also mean a secret, or secret matters collectively.^[7] Other early senses did not last: "retirement, seclusion" (1607–67), the condition of being trusted with someone's secrets (1577–1671), and once, about 1675, the private parts.^[7] Johnson (1755) defined it first as "privacy; state of being hidden", with quotations from Shakespeare.^[11] The phrase sworn to secrecy means having promised to keep a secret.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1415 – the form secretee.^[3]
• 1423 – the quality or habit of keeping things secret.^[7]
• c. 1450 – a secret, secret matters.^[7]
• 1563 – the state of being secret or hidden, and the phrase in secrecy.^[7]
• 1573 – the spelling with -cy.^[10][3]
• 1577 – the condition of being trusted with secrets (obsolete by 1671).^[7]
• 1607 – retirement, seclusion (obsolete by 1667).^[7]

Meanings

Noun

1. The state of being kept secret or hidden: The talks were held in complete secrecy.^[12][7]
2. The practice or habit of keeping things secret; secretiveness: Their love of secrecy made the committee hard to trust.^[12][4][7]
3. The ability to keep a secret; discretion: He swore the staff to secrecy.^[12][8]

Related words

• secret
• secretive
• secrete

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
6. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K., ed. (1995), The Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology, New York: HarperCollins
11. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
12. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins