Etymologically
Log in

secrete

History Permalink

Etymology and origin of the English word secrete

Pronunciation

  • /sɪˈkɹiːt/, /səˈkɹiːt/[1]

secrete1 to discharge

Confidence
Probable
Formation
Back-formation
First attested
1707 Floyer, Physician's Pulse-Watch
Ultimate origin
Latin sēcernō

Etymology

The verb meaning to discharge is a back-formation from secretion,[2][3][4][5][6][7][8] a noun recorded from 1646,[9][2] which came from French sécrétion and Latin sēcrētiō (“separation”), from sēcrēt-, the past participle stem of sēcernō (“to separate, set apart”).[2][10] The OED, the Shorter Oxford and Hoad take the verb instead from that stem, wholly or partly, with the noun suggesting it.[9][11][10]

Earliest recorded meaning

To produce by means of secretion: 1707, in Floyer's Physician's Pulse-Watch,[9][2] where Etymonline finds it implied in secreted.[3] Merriam-Webster dates the transitive sense to 1693.[4]

Semantic evolution

The noun came first, as a term of physiology for what a gland does (1646, in Browne),[9] and the verb followed it, naming the same action.[2][9] Johnson (1755) glossed this verb as "to secern; to separate", staying close to the Latin meaning.[12] An adjective of this spelling, meaning "separated", taken directly from the Latin participle, is recorded in 1678, in Cudworth.[9] The verb was applied figuratively from 1863, in Kingsley's letters,[9] and was used intransitively, to perform the act of secretion, from 1872, in Huxley.[9][11] Merriam-Webster records the sense of producing something in the manner of a gland.[4]

Timeline

  • 1707 – transitive, to produce by secretion.[9][2] Merriam-Webster dates this sense to 1693.[4]
  • 1863 – transferred and figurative use.[9]
  • 1872 – intransitive, to perform the act of secretion.[9][11]

Meanings

Verb

  1. Of a gland, cell or organ, to produce and release a substance: The liver secretes bile.[4][5][9]
  2. To perform this action, without a stated object: The tissue went on secreting normally after the operation.[4][9]
  3. To produce something in the way a gland does.[4][9]

Word family

  • secretor
  • oversecrete
  • secretin
  • secretagogue
  • unsecreted

secrete2 to hide

Confidence
Probable
First attested
1741 Warburton, Divine Legation of Moses
Ultimate origin
Latin sēcrētus
Etymology tree of secrete2
inherited borrowed derived
Latin cernō
Latin sēcernō
Latin sēcrētus
English secret
English secrete
French secret
Italian segreto
From the same root · secrete2
Latin certō ← cernō
Latin concernō ← cernō
Latin crīmen ← cernō
Latin dēcernō ← cernō
Latin discernō ← cernō
Latin excernō ← cernō
Latin incernō ← cernō
Latin sēcrētārium ← sēcrētus
Latin sēcrētārius ← sēcrētus
Latin sēcrētum ← sēcrētus
English secretive ← secret
Italian segretario ← segreto

Etymology

The verb meaning to hide is an alteration from English secret, the obsolete verb, to keep secret or conceal,[9][2][3][5][6][7][8][4] made under the influence of Latin sēcrētus (“set apart, hidden”),[9][2][4][10] the past participle of sēcernō (“to separate, distinguish”).[4] The older verb, recorded from 1595, was formed from the noun.[2][3]

Earliest recorded meaning

To place in concealment, to hide out of sight: 1741, in Warburton's Divine Legation of Moses.[9][2][3][4]

Semantic evolution

The new spelling replaced secret as a verb and kept its meaning of concealing.[9][2] Soon afterwards the idea of hiding extended to removing something secretly, and to appropriating another person's possessions in a secret way, first in Fielding's Tom Jones (1749).[9][2] Johnson (1755) entered it in one article with the bodily sense, defining it first as to put aside or hide.[12] The reflexive use, of hiding oneself, is recorded from 1764.[9]

Timeline

  • 1595 – the earlier verb secret, to conceal.[2]
  • 1741 – to hide out of sight.[9][2][4]
  • 1749 – to remove secretly, to appropriate another's possessions.[9][2]
  • 1764 – reflexive, to hide oneself.[9]

Meanings

Verb

  1. To put in a hiding place; to conceal: He secreted the letter inside a hollowed-out book.[4][5][9]
  2. To take another person's property secretly; to abstract.[4][9][11]

Usage notes

A separate verb of the same spelling, recorded from 1839, belongs to the fur trade: to treat fur with a chemical such as mercuric nitrate so that it felts better, also called carrot.[9][4] It comes from French sécréter, from secret, probably because the process was at first a trade secret.[9][4]

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 Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  3. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  5. ^ a b c d Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins
  6. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
  8. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z 27 Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
  11. ^ 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
  12. ^ a b Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
Cite this entry

“Secrete.” Etymologically, 5 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/secrete. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·