
[Middle English, from Old French, from Latin sēcrētus, from past participle of sēcernere, to set aside : sē-, apart + cernere, to separate.]
secretly se'cret·ly adv.SYNONYMS secret, stealthy, covert, clandestine, furtive, surreptitious, underhand. These adjectives mean deliberately hidden from view or knowledge. Secret is the most general: a desk with a secret compartment; secret negotiations. Stealthy suggests quiet, cautious deceptiveness intended to escape notice: heard stealthy footsteps on the stairs. Covert describes something that is concealed or disguised: protested covert actions undertaken by the CIA. Clandestine implies stealth and secrecy for the concealment of an often illegal or improper purpose: clandestine intelligence operations. Furtive suggests the slyness, shiftiness, and evasiveness of a thief: a menacing and furtive look to his eye. Something surreptitious is stealthy, furtive, and often unseemly or unethical: the surreptitious mobilization of troops preparing for a sneak attack. Underhand implies unfairness, deceit, or slyness as well as secrecy: achieved success by underhand methods.
adjective
noun
Definition: hidden, unrevealed
Antonyms: clear, defined, explicit, forthright, honest, known, open, public, revealed, unconcealed, visible
adj
Definition: underhand, clandestine
Antonyms: aboveboard, known, legal, legitimate, overt, public
n
Definition: something kept hidden, unrevealed
Antonyms: known, public knowledge, revelation
adj. (of information or documents) given the security classification above unclassified and below top secret.
n.something that is kept or meant to be kept unknown or unseen by others: a state secret.
See the Introduction, Abbreviations and Pronunciation for further details.
1. Intimate, privy, remote, secluded, so a private retiring-room.
2. Concealed gutter.
3. Stair, often for servants, to provide discreet access.
4. Chamber in a temple, e.g. adytum.
A secret is a form of hidden knowledge. The word is etymologically related to excrement and seduction. Secret and excrement are both derived from the Latin verb cernere (crevi, cretum) which means: 1) to sift, to separate, to sort; 2) to discern or distinguish an object from a distance. The prefix "ex" relates to the idea of evacuation by sifting (excrement), the prefix "se" to the idea of separation, setting aside, and preserving (secretion, secret).
The secret has a positive, necessary side and a negative, destructive side. Freud referred to it periodically throughout his work, but gave it a central place that anticipated his later research in "The Uncanny" (1919h). In 1892 the term appeared in his writings with an anal connotation whenever it brought to mind "foul words, those secrets we all know, knowledge of which we force ourselves to hide from others" ("A Case of Successful Treatment by Hypnotism" (1892-93a)). The secret was then associated with unhealthy obsessions in the neuro-psychoses of defense (1894a). In 1900, in The Interpretation of Dreams (1900a), Freud interpreted dreams of exhibitionism as a desire to "keep a secret."
In his discussion of Dora's secret, masturbation, Freud wrote, "He who has eyes to see and ears to hear knows that mortals cannot keep any secret" (1905e [1901]). In 1906, in "Psycho-Analysis and the Establishment of Facts in Legal Proceedings," (1906c), Freud distinguished the criminal's conscious secret from the unconscious secret of the hysteric. In "Infantile Sexual Theories" (1908c), he demonstrated the importance of the parents' lying and secrecy regarding the question of the child's origins, which allows the infant to access the secret in turn. "Children, once they have been deceived (the stork theory) . . . begin to suspect that there is something hidden that grownups keep for themselves and for this reason they surround their later research in secrecy." The parents' secret is an enigmatic message triggering the birth of thinking in the infant.
In 1919, in his article "The Uncanny" (1919h), Freud gave considerable space to secrets and their transmission. He discussed the various meanings of the secret and its connections with the familiar, meetings, love affairs, sin, intimate organs, commodes, and oubliettes. He also quotes Friedrich Schelling, who writes: "'We call unheimlich anything that must remain secret and which becomes manifest.' Heimlich also designates a 'place without a ghost.'" Freud goes on to study the theme of the double, and its analysis strangely anticipates the ideas of Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok on the phantom, the crypt, and the intrapsychic cave, and all the later work on the transmission of the secret across generations: "Doubling of the ego, splitting of the ego, substitution of the ego—the constant return of the similar, repetition of the same traits, characteristics, criminal acts, even the same names in several successive generations."
Abraham and Torok make an analogy between the work of the phantom and the work of the death drive, both working in silence without being mediated in words. In their article, "De la topic réalitaire: Notations sur une métapsychologie du secret," they define the phantom as "a formation of the unconscious that is unique in never having been conscious. It is a result of the transition, whose method remains to be determined, from the parents' unconscious to the child's unconscious." They add that the phantom is the "work in the unconscious of another's inadmissible secret." The phantoms that haunt the living are "the holes left in us by the secrets of others." For these authors the phantom is associated with a preservative repression that fixes, immobilizes, and "the present past forms a block of buried reality, incapable of coming back to life without crumbling into dust."
After 1970 research on the role of the secret and non-symbolization in alienating transgenerational transmission increased. Clinical work increasingly helped illuminate concepts such as non-transmission, the transmission of the inert (with Micheline Enriquez and the heritage of psychosis), the leaping of generations and alienating unconscious identification (Alain de Mijolla, Haydée Faimberg), and failed blocked mourning (Jean Cournut). Incorporation, encryption, psychic fossilization, and unfulfilled mourning are reflections of the work of the negative that is active in the transmission of secrets across several generations. The work of Daniel Stern on affective tuning may, perhaps, serve as an explanatory link to account for this intergenerational psychic transmission, which continues to remain enigmatic.
Systemic family therapy is also relevant to secrets and their relation to family myths. The oedipal myth is already a history of a family secret. In families it is guilt that creates secrets and all the pathogenic rules that follow from them. Many American family therapists have shown that family secrets (divorce, suicide, madness, incest) can mask an implicit narcissistic wound, a devaluation of self image and family image leading to abnormal behavior in a descendant.
We must not forget that our psychic life can only develop against a background that remains silent, secret—the secret Self of which Winnicott speaks. And along with negative and positive secrets, living transmissions exist alongside deadly transmissions of the secret.
Bibliography
Abraham, Nicolas, and Torok, Maria. (1994). The shell and the kernel. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. (Original work published 1971)
Faimberg, Haydeée. (1988).Á l'écoute du télescopage des generations: pertinence psychanalytique du concept. Topique, 42, 223-238.
Freud, Sigmund. (1919h). The "uncanny." SE, 17: 217-256.
Kaës, René. (1993). "Introduction au concept de la transmission psychique dans la pensée de Freud," in R. Kaës et al., Transmission de la vie psychique entre générations, Paris: Dunod.
Mijolla, Alain de. (1982). En guise d'ouverture . . . In Psychanalyse et musique, Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
——. (1987). Unconscious identification fantasies and family prehistory. International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 68, 397-403.
—ANNE-MARIE MAIRESSE
Who bends a knee where violets grow, a hundred secret things shall know.
— R. Field.
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Quotes:
"Every thing secret degenerates, even the administration of justice; nothing is safe that does not show how it can bear discussion and publicity."
- Lord Acton
"Our true history is scarcely ever deciphered by others. The chief part of the drama is a monologue, or rather an intimate debate between God, our conscience, and ourselves. Tears, grieves, depressions, disappointments, irritations, good and evil thoughts, decisions, uncertainties, deliberations --all these belong to our secret, and are almost all incommunicable and intransmissible, even when we try to speak of them, and even when we write them down."
- Henri Frederic Amiel
"You know there are no secrets in America. It's quite different in England, where people think of a secret as a shared relation between two people."
- W. H. Auden
"To know that one has a secret is to know half the secret itself."
- Henry Ward Beecher
"Secrets travel fast in Paris."
- Napoleon Bonaparte
"What one hides is worth neither more nor less than what one finds. And what one hides from oneself is worth neither more nor less than what one allows others to find."
- Andre Breton
See more famous quotes about Secrets

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| Secret | |
|---|---|
![]() Secret, by Todd Nauck |
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| Publication information | |
| Publisher | DC Comics |
| First appearance | Young Justice: The Secret |
| Created by | Todd Dezago Todd Nauck |
| In-story information | |
| Alter ego | Greta Hayes |
| Team affiliations | Young Justice |
| Abilities | Formerly the ability to fly, teleport, shape-shift, become ethereal, and take souls to the "other side". |
Secret (Greta Hayes) is a fictional character, a superheroine in the DC Comics universe.
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Contents
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Secret first appeared in a one-shot comic, part of the Girlfrenzy fifth week event, by Todd Dezago and Todd Nauck called Young Justice: The Secret, in which Robin, Impulse, and Superboy helped her to escape from the DEO (Department of Extranormal Operations) agents who were holding her against her will. Secret was incorporeal, able to take on a variety of appearances, and is referred to as "the mist girl" or "the bottle girl" by the various agents who pursue her throughout the run of Young Justice.
Eventually, her origin was revealed: Secret was once an ordinary girl named Greta, whose adoptive brother Billy killed her as part of his plan to become the supervillain Harm. Because of the manner of her death, Greta remained stuck on this plane of existence, a gateway between the living and the dead. Billy himself, after attacking the team, died when his own father shot him. Billy returned during the Day of Judgment storyline, as the entirety of Hell had been evacuated. He again battled the team, using the substance of Secret.
Secret joined Young Justice along with Wonder Girl and Arrowette. She was often referred to as "Suzie" because her real name was unknown at the time. Secret became good friends with the two girls, and was often portrayed as shy. She nursed a crush on Robin throughout the series, and often defended his actions and followed his leadership without doubt. She also expressed jealousy of Spoiler, Robin's girlfriend, to the point where the pair of them had a full-out battle across Gotham City, that was stopped by the combined efforts of Red Tornado and Robin.
In an alternate reality, Secret's powers had been taken on by Billy. Ironically, Billy fought for what he perceived as justice in this form.
During the Sins of Youth storyline, a temporarily adult Secret, with the aid of Deadman, chased down Teekl, the feline familiar of the villain Klarion the Witch Boy. Surprising her age-altered friends, she caused Klarion to back down by threatening to kill Teekl. When undoing everything he had done, Klarion insisted that it was everyone or nothing. Secret didn't want to change back, but was persuaded by Robin, who promised to always be there for her. As predicted by the nearby hero Merry Pemberton, this would later cause many problems. Secret would even go so far as to physically threaten Spoiler.
During the time when Hal Jordan tried to mentor Secret, she visited her father in jail. Under the mental influence of Billy, her father rejected her, leaving her more despondent than before.
Secret eventually gave in to the darkness in her nature at the behest of Darkseid, whom she mistakenly called 'Doug Side'. During her time on Darkseid's planet of Apokolips, Billy, possessing her father, launched the body into one of the firepits, killing them both. Although Secret's mentor, Hal Jordan had offered to step in and save Greta, as well as the world, the current team advisor Snapper Carr rejected the offer, preferring that the kids use Secret's turning evil as a 'learning experience.' Tim was able to talk her down. In the last issue of Young Justice, a disgusted Darkseid stripped her of her powers, leaving her an ordinary, living girl, which was ironically just as she always wanted to be.
She now attends the Elias School for Girls, along with Cassandra Sandsmark and Cissie King-Jones.
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Dansk (Danish)
adj. - hemmelig, fordækt, lønlig
n. - hemmelighed
idioms:
Nederlands (Dutch)
geheim, heimelijk
Français (French)
adj. - secret, anonyme
n. - secret, mystère
idioms:
Deutsch (German)
adj. - geheim, heimlich
n. - Geheimnis
idioms:
Ελληνική (Greek)
adj. - μυστικός, κρυφός, απόρρητος
n. - μυστικό, απόρρητο
idioms:
idioms:
Português (Portuguese)
adj. - secreto, oculto, íntimo
n. - segredo (m), mistério (m), chave (f)
idioms:
Русский (Russian)
секрет, тайна, разгадка, тайная причина, ключ, загадка, секретный, потайной, скрытный, зашифрованный, загадочный, затаенный, в секрете
idioms:
Español (Spanish)
adj. - secreto, confidencial, escondido, recóndito, reservado
n. - secreto, misterio
idioms:
Svenska (Swedish)
adj. - hemlig, sekret, lönn-, avskild, tystlåten, förtegen
n. - hemlighet
中文(简体)(Chinese (Simplified))
秘密的, 幽静的, 隐秘的, 秘密, 机密, 神秘, 奥秘, 内情, 秘诀, 诀窍
idioms:
中文(繁體)(Chinese (Traditional))
adj. - 秘密的, 幽靜的, 隱秘的
n. - 秘密, 機密, 神秘, 奧秘, 內情, 秘訣, 訣竅
idioms:
한국어 (Korean)
adj. - 비밀의, 남의 눈에 띄지 않는, 과묵한
n. - 비밀, 비법, 불가사의
idioms:
日本語 (Japanese)
adj. - 秘密の, 機密の, 人目につかない, 隠しだてする
n. - 秘密, 秘訣, 神秘, 不思議
idioms:
العربيه (Arabic)
(صفه) سري (الاسم) سر
עברית (Hebrew)
adj. - סודי, חשאי, נסתר, כמוס, שקט, מבודד
n. - סוד, תעלומה, מסתורין
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