# To secret (secrete)



## Akane Hosaki

Hi there!_

He needed to get out, to escape, and pretend this wasn't happening. He had never expected her to find the letter, hadn't anticipated the possibility that she would discover it. And now it was too late to secret the letter away somewhere less obvious, or better yet, destroy it before anyone saw it.

_Does the verb "to secret" exist? 

Thanks in advance, everyone ^_-


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## Paulfromitaly

It seems so..


> *Secret*
> Se"cret\, *v. t*. To keep secret. [Obs.]   --Bacon.


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## Akane Hosaki

Ops, sorry I posted this in the wrong section. Thank you! =)


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## liliput

What is the source for your quote Paulfromitaly?

I've never come across a verb "to secret". I would assume this to be a mispelling of the verb *to secrete *meaning to conceal or hide.


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## Meeracat

I think that the verb 'secrete' is what was meant here. This means to hide away.

See: http://www.wordreference.com/definition/secrete


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## GreenWhiteBlue

As noted in the defintion, the verb "secret" is obsolete. The current verb is _secrete_, with an _e_ on the end.


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## Æsop

I'm not sure why this question is in the wrong place.

I would not have thought that "to secret" = "to conceal" would be "obsolete," since it's not an unfamiliar word, one that I associate exclusively with older writings, or one that I can think of only in set phrases (like "fro" in "to and fro").  But as a verb it's not even in the dictionary that I use most often.

It's probably better to spell it "secret" to distinguish it from "to secrete" = "to form or generate bodily fluids such as sweat and urine."  (My dictionary does include "to secrete" = "to conceal" as a separate verb from the preceding, with a separate etymology).


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## Meeracat

Æsop said:


> I'm not sure why this question is in the wrong place.
> 
> I would not have thought that "to secret" = "to conceal" would be "obsolete," since it's not an unfamiliar word, one that I associate exclusively with older writings, or one that I can think of only in set phrases (like "fro" in "to and fro").  But as a verb it's not even in the dictionary that I use most often.
> 
> It's probably better to spell it "secret" to distinguish it from "to secrete" = "to form or generate bodily fluids such as sweat and urine."  (My dictionary does include "to secrete" = "to conceal" as a separate verb from the preceding, with a separate etymology).


I don't think that there would be any confusion between hiding a letter and secreting bodily fluids. It might be useful to use the Wordreference dictionary to check this out, as I have indicated above.


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## Akane Hosaki

Æsop said:


> I'm not sure why this question is in the wrong place.



It was originally posted in "Italian-English", that's why.

So, "to secret" does seem to exist, but it's very unusual nowadays, isn't it? And it has the same meaning of "to secrete": this is what I got it until now.

Am I wrong?

Thanks A LOT to everyone, anyway. Very helpful!


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## Meeracat

Yes you got it. 'Secret' as a verb did exist but is not used now. The more modern version of the verb is 'to secrete'. 

All the best


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## Paulfromitaly

liliput said:


> What is the source for your quote Paulfromitaly?



http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/secret

Said that, it may as well be a spelling mistake in this context.


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## GreenWhiteBlue

Akane Hosaki said:


> So, "to secret" does seem to exist, but it's very unusual nowadays, isn't it?


No, it is not merely "unusual", but is actually obsolete, as every dictionary will confirm. The form of the verb used in modern writing is "secrete", with an "e" on the end of it.



> And it has the same meaning of "to secrete": this is what I got it until now.


A better way of saying this is that the spelling "to secret" is now obsolete, and the modern way of spelling this same word is "to secrete."


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## scarlett_dream

We're moving incresingly away fromthe traditional formal office environment with people *secreted away* in their own offices to much more open-plan, more relaxed, more comfortable working environment.

Does it mean something like "hidden" here?


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## liliput

The verb is _to secrete_ rather than "secret". It means to hide.


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## Nichie

I would assume that it was referring that they're are hidden in their own offices.


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## Loob

liliput said:


> The verb is _to secrete_ rather than "secret". It means to hide.


Liliput's right - the verb here is _secrete_.


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## CapnPrep

Quick poll: Do you pronounce this [sɪˈkriːtɪd] (rhymes with _ex*cret*ed_), or [ˈsiːkrɪtɪd] (sounds like _*se*cret_ + _-ed_)?


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## liliput

CapnPrep said:


> Quick poll: Do you pronounce this [sɪˈkriːtɪd] (rhymes with _ex*cret*ed_), or [ˈsiːkrɪtɪd] (sounds like _*se*cret_ + _-ed_)?



I would pronounce it to rhyme with excreted - si-*kreet*-ed - in line with the pronunciation of the infinitive si-*kreet*.


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## Old Goat

My question has to do with pronunciation.  Would the past tense of "secret," be the same as the past tense of "secrete?"  With the decline in U. S. literacy, I am not sure that I would trust the average reader to correctly identify the difference.  Yes, I frequently use words that are "out of date;" that comes with being "out of date," by virtue of longevity.


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## Old Goat

I have always pronounced it secret + -ed.  Is there any difference regionally?


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## Loob

Old Goat said:


> My question has to do with pronunciation.  Would the past tense of "secret," be the same as the past tense of "secrete?"  ...


Hello Old Goat - welcome to the forums!

I imagine the past tense of the now-obsolete verb "secret" was pronounced like the noun "secret" plus "-id".  The past tense of "secrete" rhymes with "defeated" or "excreted", as liliput says in post 18.


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## Septuagenarian

I came here to check on using the word secret as a verb after writing this: 

He secrets a spy camera on his body...

I'm going with the older form of the verb, to secret or hide.  I'm rejecting to secrete, since it connotes secretion.


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## Dale Texas

Septuagenarian said:


> I came here to check on using the word secret as a verb after writing this:
> 
> He secrets a spy camera on his body...
> 
> I'm going with the older form of the verb, to secret or hide.  I'm rejecting to secrete, since it connotes secretion.



I agree.  As a matter of fact this entire thread startled me.  And like Old Goat in post #20, I pronounce the past as *secret + -ed.  *If other people want to ooze body fluids over themselves or objects, that's their privilege.


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## Glenfarclas

Dale Texas said:


> I agree. As a matter of fact this entire thread startled me. And like Old Goat in post #20, I pronounce the past as *secret + -ed. *If other people want to ooze body fluids over themselves or objects, that's their privilege.



I'm with you.  For me they have always been distinct verbs, with their own distinct spellings and pronunciations.


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## Copyright

Why use the older, less familiar, form of the verb "secret" when you can just hide the camera – unless you're writing a historical novel?


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## Glenfarclas

I didn't know until relatively recently that "to secret" _was_ considered older or less familiar.  I'm sure I've seen it in various places, and I just assumed that the other form, when I saw it, was a solecism.


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## Keith Bradford

Septuagenarian said:


> I came here to check on using the word secret as a verb after writing this:
> 
> He secrets a spy camera on his body...
> 
> I'm going with the older form of the verb, to secret or hide.  I'm rejecting to secrete, since it connotes secretion.



Reject away, my friend, you're speaking obsolete English and that's an end to it.  But then, perhaps you still use *ye *and* meseems *?


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## Loob

Septuagenarian said:


> ... I'm rejecting to secrete, since it connotes secretion.


But it doesn't - there are two quite separate "secrete" verbs, as the WR dictionary shows.


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## PaulQ

Septuagenarian said:


> He secrets a spy camera on his body...
> 
> I'm going with the older form of the verb, to secret or hide. I'm rejecting to secrete, since it connotes secretion.


If you publish, I suggest you prepare yourself for some scathing reviews of your English...

Out of curiosity, what was wrong with *conceal *or *hide*?


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## CapnPrep

Neither of these verbs is in common use, especially in spoken English, and I don't think most people acquire either word from ordinary, spontaneous conversation in childhood… I think most people first encounter the verb(s) through reading, and in written form, it is impossible to know the target pronunciation in many cases. People who say _*se*cret_ (vb) are not preserving some magical unbroken link through time to centuries-old English; they probably learned the word through written forms like _secreted_ or _secreting_ and deduced that the verb was _*se*cret_, which after all is sensible enough, and a common process in English (simple noun to verb conversion, with no change in pronunciation). And it has the advantage of avoiding the homophony with the much more common verb _secrete _[a fluid] (which is in fact the same word, etymologically).

One could say (uncharitably) that if these people had read more, or more attentively, they would have come across forms like _secrete_, _secretes_ and learned the "right" pronunciation. But I wonder if _I secrete_, _he secretes_ (in the intended sense) are really that much more frequent than _I secret_, _he secrets_, in speech or in writing.

Personally, I find both pronunciations unsatisfying and so I would never use this verb, and it seems that several of the other participants in this thread may adopt the same (non-)usage.


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## Loob

CapnPrep said:


> ...People who say _*se*cret_ (vb) are not preserving some magical unbroken link through time to centuries-old English; they probably learned the word through written forms like _secreted_ or _secreting_ and deduced that the verb was _*se*cret_ ...


I'm sure you're right, Capn. It reminds me of the astonishment I felt as a teenager when I learnt that "misled" wasn't the past tense of the verb "misle"....


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## Dale Texas

Yes, we were inattentive readers, and our teachers never spoke the word aloud, and when they did, they were wrong.


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## Loob

I don't think it would have worked like that, Dale.  As a teenager, I knew perfectly well that there was a verb "mislead" which had a past tense /mɪsˈlɛd/; it's just that I also 'knew' that there was a verb "misle" with a past tense /ˈmɪsəld/.  (I've since learnt that I was not alone, thank heavens.)


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## Dale Texas

I'm sticking to my original comments,Loob.  We didn't "misunderstand" or mishear or misread the word at all, or up come with invalid pronunciations out of the blue. "secret" was the valid word as were the above pronunciations given above by some of my fellow older AE speakers.


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## CapnPrep

I've just checked Merriam-Webster, and while they say the verb _secret_ is obsolete, they accept both pronunciations for _secrete _(in the "conceal" meaning). Which doesn't make much sense to me. If it's OK to pronounce it like _secret_ (and I think it is), then I think it should be OK to spell it _secret_…


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## JamesM

I'm sorry but this simply can't be blamed on misunderstanding or inattentiveness.   There are dozens of examples of "secret" being used as a verb in contemporary books.  Here are some examples using the common phrase in American English of "to secret away":

Lost on the Road to Jericho, 2005,  David L. Williams


> After that he could retire and live the rest of his life off what he had been able _*to secret away*_ into a Cayman Island account.


Reeducation in Postwar Vietnam: Personal Postscripts to Peace,  By Edward P. Metzner, 2001


> From then on, I tried hard _*to secret away*_ a few pieces of food for such purposes. Unless there was some pressing work that needed to be done, we were now permitted to rest on weekends.


How to Get Home By Bret Lott, Leshan, 1998


> The shovel was still in the trunk, he knew, and the garbage bag — evidence he would have _*to secret away*_ somehow, after they'd been to the Bi-Lo, and after all those telephone poles.



There are dozens and dozens more of just this phrase.  I don't know where the dictionary came up with the idea that it was obsolete but it is definitely still in use.


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## Dale Texas

I'm glad you found those examples, James, i really am.


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## Loob

CapnPrep said:


> ... If it's OK to pronounce it like _secret_ (and I think it is), then I think it should be OK to spell it _secret_…


That analysis works for me, despite the fact that I don't have a verb "secret" and I'd have changed it to "secrete" if one had come across my desk (in the days when I had a desk...).

M-W seems to have got itself into a logical absurdity.


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## velisarius

I must have come upon many, many examples of someone having something (often a weapon) "secreted about his person", because it sounds like a set phrase or cliche to me. I pronounce it the same way I pronounce its homonym in "gastric juice is secreted by gastric glands".


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## Loob

JamesM said:


> I'm sorry but this simply can't be blamed on misunderstanding or inattentiveness.   There are dozens of examples of "secret" being used as a verb in contemporary books. ....


James, can you find any similar examples of "he secrets"?  I've been looking, and so far the only examples I've found have been mistranscriptions - apart from a UK Parliamentary example dating from 1839.


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## JamesM

I think I've shown the most common use of it, Loob.  Have you tried Googling "secrets away"?

Here are some examples of "he/she secrets" from reviews of books and movies.  Granted, they're written by everyday people in conversational style, but that's telling in its own way.

http://www.greenmanreview.com/book/book_lovric_floatingbook.html


> Among some ruins, Lussieta finds a doll-sized wax figure of a woman with nails embedded in her major organs. She secrets the figure in her sleeve and carries it back to Venice. This disturbing relic becomes a major thread in the unfolding story.



http://www.dvdverdict.com/reviews/monkeytrouble.php


> Knowing that the introduction of a miniature dominant male into her homo sapiens homestead would cause the random "marking" of territory, she secrets the small wonder in her back pack, hides it in her room and teaches it to use the toilet and eat underdone poultry.



https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8008785-grounded


> She doesn’t even want them, but doesn’t want to see Mamaw playing with them either, so she secrets the dolls away in hide-away spots, only to be unearthed and doted on by Mamaw the next day.


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## Loob

JamesM said:


> I think I've shown the most common use of it, Loob.  Have you tried Googling "secrets away"?


I've just tried, James. From a quick look, in all the 429 examples of "secrets away", "secrets" is a noun....

I think we're starting to go round in circles on this.  Isn't the bottom line, perhaps:
- many people feel that "secret" is usable as a verb
- many others (including most?all? dictionaries) feel that it isn't
- to be on the safe side, it's probably best - at least in anything that's going to be published - to use "secrete"?


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## JamesM

To be on the safe side, yes.  However, there are things published with "secret" as a verb, as in my previous examples.  If it's an error, it's an error, but it's a very widespread one in American English.

Try "secret away", as I did.  Also, did you look at my examples for "she secrets"?  Those are definitely not nouns.

I'm fine with saying "Avoid this because it's not backed up by dictionaries".  I'm not fine with "it only exists as a misheard use or pronunciation of secrete and never appears in modern print."  It's simply not true.


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## CapnPrep

Loob said:


> Isn't the bottom line, perhaps:
> - many people feel that "secret" is usable as a verb
> - many others (including most?all? dictionaries) feel that it isn't
> - to be on the safe side, it's probably best - at least in anything that's going to be published - to use "secrete"?


I would add that many people (I think) do not have _secrete_ as a verb meaning "hide, conceal", and they only know "secrete [a fluid]". So _secrete_ may not be a such a safe choice, either.


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## JamesM

(I'm one of those many people.  I've learned it from this thread, actually.)


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