secrete

See also: secreté, secrété, sécrété, secrète, and sécrète

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: sĭkrētʹ, IPA^(key): /sɪˈkɹiːt/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -iːt

Etymology 1

First attested in 1678: from Latin sēcrētus (“[having been] separated”).

Adjective

secrete (not comparable)

1. (obsolete, rare) Separated.
   • 1678: Ralph Cudworth, The True Intellectual System of the Universe, book 1, chapter 4, pages 307 and 582:

     […] they ſuppoſing Two other Divine Hypoſtaſes Superiour thereunto, which were perfectly Secrete from Matter.

     […]

     This ſo containeth all things, as not being yet ſecrete and diſtinct; whereas in the Second they are diſcerned and diſtinguiſhed by Reaſon; that is, they are Actually diſtinguiſhed in their Ideas; whereas the Firſt is the Simple and Fecund Power of all things.

Etymology 2

First directly attested in 1728; attested as the past-participial adjective secreted in 1707: from Latin sēcrētus, perfect passive participle of sēcernō (“I separate”); reinforced by back-formation from secretion; compare secern; cognate with French sécréter and the Spanish secretar.

Verb

secrete (third-person singular simple present secretes, present participle secreting, simple past and past participle secreted)

1. (physiology, transitive, of organs, glands, etc.) To extract a substance from blood, sap, or similar to produce and emit waste for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function.

   Synonym: (archaic) secern

   • 1842, William Benjamin Carpenter, Principles of Human Physiology:

     Why one set of cells should secrete bile, another urea, and so on, we do not know.

   • 2008, Stephen J. McPheeMaxine A. Papadakiset al., Current Medical Diagnosis and Treatment, McGraw-Hill Medical, page 1202:

     Many tumors secrete two or more different hormones.

2. (transitive, figurative) To exude or yield.
   • 1863: Charles Kingsley (author), Frances Elizabeth Kingsley (editor), Charles Kingsley, his Letters and Memories of his Life (first published posthumously in 1877), page 156 (8th edition: 1880)

     If you won’t believe my great new doctrine (which, by the bye, is as old as the Greeks), that souls secrete their bodies, as snails do shells, you will remain in outer darkness.

   • 1887, James Russell Lowell, Democracy and Other Addresses, published 1892, page 15:

     Let me not be misunderstood. I see as clearly as any man possibly can, and rate as highly, the value of wealth, and of hereditary wealth, as the security of refinement, the feeder of all those arts that ennoble and beautify life, and as making a country worth living in. Many an ancestral hall here in England has been a nursery of that culture which has been of example and benefit to all. Old gold has a civilizing virtue which new gold must grow old to be capable of secreting.

Translations

(transitive) produce by secretion

• Bulgarian: отделям (bg) (otdeljam)
• Catalan: secretar (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 分泌 (zh) (fēnmì)

• Czech: vylučovat (cs)
• Dutch: afscheiden (nl)
• Finnish: erittää (fi)
• French: sécréter (fr), excréter (fr)
• German: ausscheiden (de), aussondern (de), absondern (de), sezernieren (de)
• Greek: κρύβω (el) (krývo), καταχωνιάζω (el) (katachoniázo), εκκρίνω (el) (ekkríno)
• Icelandic: seyta
• Japanese: 分泌する (ja) (ぶんぴつする, bunpitsu-suru)
• Korean: 분비하다 (ko) (bunbihada)
• Limburgish: aafsjèjje
• Macedonian: лачи (lači), излачува (izlačuva)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: avsondre

• Persian: ترشح کردن (fa) (taraššoh kardan)
• Polish: wydzielać (pl) impf, wydzielić (pl) pf
• Portuguese: secretar
• Romanian: secreta (ro)
• Russian: выделя́ть (ru) impf (vydeljátʹ), вы́делить (ru) pf (výdelitʹ)
• Spanish: secretar (es)
• Telugu: స్రవించు (te) (sraviñcu)
• Vietnamese: tiết (vi)

Etymology 3

Alteration of secret.

Verb

secrete (third-person singular simple present secretes, present participle secreting, simple past and past participle secreted)

1. (transitive) To conceal.
   • 1859, Charles Dickens, chapter II, in A Tale of Two Cities, London: Chapman and Hall, […], →OCLC:

     With those words the passenger opened the coach-door and got in; not at all assisted by his fellow-passengers, who had expeditiously secreted their watches and purses in their boots, and were now making a general pretence of being asleep.

   • 1914, The Pacific Reporter, volume 142, West Publishing Company, page 450:

     Plaintiffs filed an affidavit for an attachment, alleging that defendant was about to assign, secrete, and dispose of his property with intent to delay and defraud his creditors, and was about to convert his property into money to place it beyond the reach of his creditors.

   • 1997, Chris Horrocks, Introducing Foucault, Totem Books, Icon Books, →ISBN, page 43:

     Whereas the Renaissance had allowed madness into the light, the classical age saw it as scandal or shame. Families secreted mad uncles and strange cousins in asylums.

Usage notes

• The present participle and past forms secreting and secreted are heteronymous with the corresponding forms of the similar verb secret, and this can create ambiguity when the word is encountered in print.

Translations

to conceal

• Finnish: kätkeä (fi), piilottaa (fi)
• French: celer (fr), cacher (fr)
• Italian: secretare
• Japanese: 秘密にする (ja) (himitsu ni suru), 隠す (ja) (kakusu)
• Korean: 감추다 (ko) (gamchuda), 숨기다 (ko) (sumgida)
• Maori: whakapeke, whakangaro

to steal

• Finnish: varastaa (fi), kähveltää (fi)
• French: dérober (fr), enlever (fr)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Dutch: ^{(please verify)} verbergen (nl) (1), ^{(please verify)} verstoppen (nl) (1), ^{(please verify)} wegstoppen (nl) (1), ^{(please verify)} ontvreemden (nl) (2), ^{(please verify)} stelen (nl) (2), ^{(please verify)} verduisteren (nl) (2), ^{(please verify)} ontfutselen (nl) (2)
• Spanish: ^{(please verify)} secretear (es)
• Volapük: ^{(please verify)} klänön

Adjective

secrete (comparative more secrete, superlative most secrete)

1. Archaic form of secret.

   a secrete breach, a secrete bed (Spenser)

   • 1579, Jean Calvin, Sermons ... on the Epistles of S. Paule to Timothie, page 323:

     […] is GOD euerlasting, is this a secrete and hidden thing manifested in the fleshe?

   • 1595, Jean Taffin, The Amendment of Life, Comprised in Fower Bookes, page 171:

     Ambitian [...] is a secrete poyson, a hidden sinne […]

References

• “†seˈcrete, a.” listed in the Oxford English Dictionary, second edition (1989) (adjective)
• OED (second edition), “secrete, v.” (verb and figurative senses)

Anagrams

• Treeces

Italian

Adjective

secrete

1. feminine plural of secreto

Participle

secrete f pl

1. feminine plural of secreto

Anagrams

• cretese, escrete

Latin

Etymology 1

From the perfect passive participle sēcrētus (“sundered, secluded, hidden”) +‎ -ē.

Alternative forms

• sēcrētō

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /seːˈkreː.teː/, [s̠eːˈkreːt̪eː]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /seˈkre.te/, [seˈkrɛːt̪e]

Adverb

sēcrētē (comparative sēcrētius, superlative sēcrētissimē)

1. secretly, in secret, privately

Etymology 2

Inflection of perfect passive participle of sēcernō (“separate; part; reject”).

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /seːˈkreː.te/, [s̠eːˈkreːt̪ɛ]
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /seˈkre.te/, [seˈkrɛːt̪e]

Participle

sēcrēte

1. vocative masculine singular of sēcrētus

References

• “secrete”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• secrete in Ramminger, Johann (2016 July 16 (last accessed)) Neulateinische Wortliste: Ein Wörterbuch des Lateinischen von Petrarca bis 1700‎^[1], pre-publication website, 2005-2016

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /seˈkɾɛ.t͡ʃi/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /seˈkɾɛ.t͡ʃi/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /seˈkɾɛ.te/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /sɨˈkɾɛ.tɨ/

• Rhymes: (Brazil) -ɛt͡ʃi, (Portugal) -ɛtɨ
• Hyphenation: se‧cre‧te

Verb

secrete

1. inflection of secretar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /seˈkɾete/ [seˈkɾe.t̪e]
• Rhymes: -ete
• Syllabification: se‧cre‧te

Verb

secrete

1. inflection of secretar:
   1. first/third-person singular present subjunctive
   2. third-person singular imperative