secret

Forms

secret n (plural secrete)^[1] Adjective: secret m or n (feminine singular secretă, masculine plural secreți, feminine/neuter plural secrete).^[1] An older plural secreturi: „toate secreturile particulare sînt în puterea obștii” “all private secrets are in the power of the public” (Căpățineanu).^[2] An old and regional variant sicret: „împovărat de sicretul ce trebuia să-l păzească” “burdened by the secret he had to keep” (Pleșoianu).^[2]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French secret, and at the same time borrowed from Latin sēcrētus, the two sources DEX, MDA2, the DLR, MDN and DILF give.^{[3][4][2][5][6]} Marcu and Maneca name the Latin noun sēcrētum and compare French, and Wiktionary gives both Latin forms.^[7][1] The Latin adjective is the past participle of sēcernō (“to separate”),^[8] a compound of sē- and cernō (“to sift; to distinguish”).^[9][10][11] In French the inherited forms such as Old French segrei were remade after the Latin.^[9]

The same Latin adjective survives in a popular word of Transylvania and Bukovina, săcret “deserted, desolate; cursed”.^[12][2] Pușcariu, the REW and Wiktionary take it from Latin and compare Albanian shkretë (“deserted”), and Tiktin thinks it may be inherited.^{[13][14][1][12]} Ciorănescu treats all the senses as one word, popular only in Transylvania, with the senses “hidden”, “secret” and “password” copied from French.^[15] Tiktin suggests that German sakret, used in Austria and taken from Italian sagrato (“damned”), may have shaped the sense “cursed”, while Ciorănescu explains it from the idea of emptiness.^[12][15]

Earliest recorded meaning

The neologism appears at the end of the 18th century in the plural secreturi, shells with a charge of secret composition that gave off poisonous fumes, used by the Russians in the wars of the time;^[12][2] Ienache Văcărescu's history of the Ottoman emperors and Dionisie Eclesiarhul's chronicle, written in 1814, record them.^[12][2] The senses “a secret” and “secret, confidential” are recorded from 1829, in Curierul românesc and Albina românească.^[2]

Semantic evolution

In the 1830s the noun named a hidden method or recipe, such as farming and industrial “secrets”, and a thing that must not be told; the adjective qualified letters, commissions and libraries kept from the public, and soon hidden feelings.^[2] Bălcescu used the noun for a mystery the mind cannot yet grasp.^[2][16] Later senses include an isolation cell in a prison, now out of use, and “discretion”, now obsolete.^[3][12][17] Set phrases include societate secretă “secret society”, agent secret “secret agent”, secret de stat “state secret” and secretul lui Polichinelle “an open secret”.^[3][4]

The plural is secrete; the older secreturi is obsolete and popular.^[2][4] Negulici's dictionary of neologisms listed the noun in 1848.^[18]

Timeline

• 1814 – secreturi “shells of secret composition” in Dionisie Eclesiarhul's chronicle;^[12][2] Ienache Văcărescu's undated history of the Ottoman emperors has them too.^[12][2]
• 1829 – the noun “secret” and the adjective “secret, confidential” in Curierul românesc and Albina românească.^[2]
• 1848 – in Negulici's dictionary of neologisms.^[18]
• 1870 – Costinescu gives the noun and the adjective with their French equivalents.^[19]
• 1929 – Șăineanu adds a cell for solitary confinement in a prison.^[17]

Meanings

Adjective

1. Kept hidden, not made known; confidential: societate secretă “secret society”;^[3] (of feelings) not declared or confessed.^[3]
2. Hidden from sight, concealed: agent secret “secret agent”.^[3]

Noun

1. What is not known or must not be told to anyone; a secret: secret de stat “state secret”.^[3][4]
2. An ingenious method that ensures success; a special, effective procedure.^[3][4]
3. The inner, hard-won condition of a science or an art.^[3]
4. (obsolete) Discretion.^[3]
5. (no longer in use) An isolation cell in a prison.^[3][20]

Related words

• secreta
• secretar
• secretariat
• secrețiune
• săcret
• Latin sēcrētus
• Albanian shkretë

Usage notes

The popular adjective săcret (also sicret), recorded from about 1650 in the Anonymus Caransebesiensis, means “deserted”, “untrodden”, as a noun “a deserted place haunted by evil spirits”, and in curses “the devil”: Du-te la săcret! “Go to the devil!”.^[4][2][12] A rare secret meaning “secretion”, recorded in 1859 in Polizu's anatomy, is a back-formation from the verb secreta.^[4][2]

References

1. ^ a b c d e Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română (1965–2010), Dicționarul limbii române (DLR), serie nouă, tom I–XIX, București: Editura Academiei Române, p. s.v. secret
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 998
4. ^ a b c d e f g Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 2, 841
5. ^ Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual
6. ^ Costăchescu, Adriana; Dincă, Daniela; Dragoste, Ramona; Popescu, Mihaela; Scurtu, Gabriela (2009–2010), Dicționar de împrumuturi lexicale din limba franceză (DILF), 2 vols., Craiova: Universitaria
7. ^ Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România
8. ^ Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert
10. ^ Graur, Alexandru (1980), Cuvinte înrudite, București: Editura Științifică și Enciclopedică, p. 31
11. ^ Scriban, August (1939), Dicționaru limbii românești (etimologii, înțelesuri, exemple, citațiuni, arhaizme, neologizme, provincializme), Iași: Presa Bună, p. 1183
12. ^ a b c d e f g h i Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. secret
13. ^ Pușcariu, Sextil (1905), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der rumänischen Sprache I: Lateinisches Element, Heidelberg: Carl Winter, p. 143
14. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
15. ^ a b Ciorănescu, Alexandru (1958–1966), Diccionario etimológico rumano, La Laguna: Universidad de La Laguna (Romanian ed.: Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române, București: Saeculum, 2001), p. s.v. secret
16. ^ Macrea, Dimitrie; Petrovici, Emil (coord.) (1955–1957), Dicționarul limbii romîne literare contemporane, 4 vols., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Populare Romîne, p. 4, 87
17. ^ a b Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 581
18. ^ a b Negulici, I. D. (1848), Vocabular romînesc de toate vorbele streine întroduse pînă acum în limba romînească și de toate cuvintele ce s-ar mai putea introduce încă, București, p. s.v. secret
19. ^ Costinescu, Ion (1870), Vocabularu romano-francesu, 2 vols., Bucuresci, p. 2, 496
20. ^ Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional