secreto

Forms

secreto (feminine secreta, masculine plural secretos, feminine plural secretas)^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Latin secrētus (“separated, set apart; secret”), with the noun taken from its neuter secrētum (“a secret; a secluded place”).^[2][3][4][1] It is a learned word, first recorded in Berceo in the first half of the 13th century.^[2][3][5] The inherited form survives in Galician segredo, and the DEMel lists one Old Spanish segredo among hundreds of records of ⟨secreto⟩.^[5][6] Other Romance languages have the word too, among them Catalan secret and Italian segreto.^[7][8] Popular outcomes of the Latin adjective are rare: the REW lists Romanian secret (“deserted, desolate”) and Old French segroi, a secluded part of a forest.^[9]

secrētus is the past participle of sēcernō (“to separate, set apart”), formed with sē- (“apart”) from cernō (“to sift, distinguish”).^[2][10][11] De Vaan traces cernō to Proto-Italic *krinō and Proto-Indo-European *krey- (“to sift, separate”).^[11][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas gives Berceo as the first record.^[2] In the CDH the earliest Spanish example is in Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora (1236–1246, known from an 18th-century copy), addressed to the Virgin: „Aquel tan grant secreto Tú l' ovist' a saver” “that so great secret you came to know”.^[12] An earlier hit in the Fuero de Zorita is in its Latin text.^[12]

Semantic evolution

In 13th-century texts the adjective means “hidden, unknown” and “set apart”: the Fueros de Aragón of 1247 send the judge to a logar secreto “a secluded place” to hear witnesses.^[12] The noun meant a hidden thing and also a mystery beyond understanding, “the secret of natures” in the prose of Alfonso X.^[13] Covarrubias defined it as anything covered and kept silent, and a lugar secreto as one where no people gather.^[14]

The Diccionario de Autoridades gave first the sense “careful silence”, then the thing to be kept hidden and the caution used to hide it, and the secreto of the Inquisition, the office that dealt with matters of faith.^[15] Salvá explains that name by the secrecy all its officers kept.^[16] In 1869 the Academy added the concealed compartment of a desk or chest, and later dictionaries the hidden mechanism of a lock, the soundboard of the organ and piano, and a cut of pork behind the shoulder.^[17][4]

The thieves' cant of 1609 used secreto for an innkeeper who gave lodging.^[18] In Puerto Rico it means a police informer.^[19][20]

Timeline

• 1220–1250 – Corominas's first record, in Berceo.^[2][3]
• 1236–1246 – Berceo's Loores de Nuestra Señora (in an 18th-century copy).^[12]
• 1240–1250 – the Libro de Alexandre speaks of God's secreto (in an early 15th-century copy).^[12]
• 1247 – the Fueros de Aragón have logar secreto “a secluded place”.^[12]
• 1256 – the first record in the Old Spanish Textual Archive.^[21][13]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin secretum and arcanum, and mysterium for a divine secret.^[22][23]
• 1532 – the first record from the Americas, in Mexico.^[24]
• 1609 – Hidalgo's vocabulary of thieves' cant records secreto “innkeeper”.^[18]
• 1611 – Covarrubias defines it.^[14]
• 1843 – the Academy records the proverb no hay secreto que tarde o temprano no sea descubierto.^[25]
• 1884 – the Academy derives the adjective from Latin secretus, past participle of secernere; the 1899 edition derives the noun from secretum.^[26][27]

Meanings

Adjective

1. secret: hidden, unknown, kept from the sight or knowledge of others: Encontraron un pasadizo secreto bajo la iglesia.^[1][26][28]
2. Known only to a few, or reserved for the initiated: un rito secreto.^[28]
3. Not made public; done without being disclosed, as a secret ballot.^[28]
4. (dated) Silent, discreet, reserved.^[26]

Noun

1. A secret: something carefully kept hidden: Nunca le contó su secreto a nadie.^[4][1]
2. secrecy, discretion: Prepararon la fiesta con mucho secreto.^[4][1][29]
3. Knowledge of a remedy, recipe or method that only one person has.^[4][29]
4. A mystery, something that cannot be understood or is kept very private.^[4]
5. A hidden compartment in a piece of furniture.^[4][29]
6. The concealed mechanism of some locks, which must be known to open them.^[4]
7. (historical) The office of the Inquisition that dealt with cases of faith, and the archive where they were kept.^[4]
8. A flat cut of pork taken from behind the shoulder.^[4]
9. (music) The soundboard of the organ, the piano and similar instruments.^[4][29]
10. (Puerto Rico) A police informer.^[19]

Word family

• secretamente
• secretear
• secreteo
• secretista
• secreta
• secretario
• secretaría

Related words

• secreción
• cerner
• discernir
• Latin secrētus
• Italian segreto

Usage notes

Set phrases include secreto a voces “an open secret”, secreto de Estado and en secreto “secretly”.^[4][1] The DLE also lists a rare adverb secreto “secretly”, from Latin secreto; the Academy's 1843 edition records the adverbial use as equal to secretamente.^[4][25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 48
3. ^ a b c Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. secreto
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. secreto
5. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 6008
6. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. secreto
7. ^ Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 7, 728
8. ^ Cortelazzo, Manlio; Zolli, Paolo (1999), Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana, 2nd ed. by Manlio Cortelazzo and Michele A. Cortelazzo, Bologna: Zanichelli, p. s.v. segreto
9. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
10. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. secreto
11. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
12. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. secreto
13. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. secreto
14. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 1290
15. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 6, 62
16. ^ Salvá, Vicente (1846), Nuevo diccionario de la lengua castellana, París: Librería de Don Vicente Salvá, p. 984
17. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 704
18. ^ a b Hidalgo, Juan (1609), Romances de germanía de varios autores, con el vocabulario por la orden del a.b.c. para declaración de sus términos y lengua, Barcelona: Sebastián de Cormellas (ed. Madrid 1779), p. 199
19. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. secreto
20. ^ Academia Puertorriqueña de la Lengua Española; Universidad de Puerto Rico, Tesoro lexicográfico del español de Puerto Rico, https://tesoro.pr, p. s.v. secreto
21. ^ Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (2026), Old Spanish Textual Archive (OSTA): semi-paleographic transcriptions of Old Spanish texts, ed. Francisco Gago Jover et al., https://www.hispanicseminary.org
22. ^ Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. secreto
23. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 414
24. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. secreto
25. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 659
26. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 963
27. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 903
28. ^ a b c Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. secreto
29. ^ a b c d Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. secreto