secretariat

Etymology

It is borrowed from French secrétariat,^{[2][3][4][5][6]} from Medieval Latin sēcrētāriātus (“the office of a secretary”),^[2][3][4] from sēcrētārius (“clerk, notary, confidential officer”), the source of secretary,^[3][2][7] with the Latin suffix -ātus.^[5][2] The Medieval Latin word was a noun use of an adjective meaning "private, secret", from Latin sēcrētum (“a secret, a hidden thing”).^[3] The variant secretariate was altered under the influence of the English suffix -ate.^[5][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

The office or position of a secretary, and the body of secretaries or the place where they keep records: 1811, in a letter of the Duke of Wellington.^[2][3][5]

Semantic evolution

From the office of a secretary, the word extended to the staff and the premises of such an office, and especially to the administrative department of a government or of an international body.^[2][9][5] Etymonline dates to 1926 the sense, with a capital S, of a division of the Central Committee of the Soviet Communist Party, from the Russian equivalent.^[3] Merriam-Webster's Unabridged also records a corps of secretaries or clerical staff in a business office.^[5]

Timeline

• 1811 – the office of a secretary; a secretarial department and its premises.^[2][3][5]
• 1926 – the Secretariat of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee.^[3]

Meanings

Noun

1. The administrative department of a government or an international organization, headed by a secretary: the United Nations secretariat.^[5][10][11]
2. The staff of such a department, or the building or rooms it occupies.^[11][5][10]
3. A body of secretaries; the clerical staff of an organization.^[5][11][12]
4. The office or position of a secretary.^[5][10][11]

Word family

• subsecretariat
• undersecretariat

Related words

• secretary
• secret
• secrete

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ Gove, Philip Babcock, ed. (1961), Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ a b c The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin
11. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
12. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster