- secret (v.)
- "to keep secret" (described in OED as "obsolete"), 1590s, from secret (n.). Related: Secreted; secreting.
- secret (n.)
- late 14c., from Latin secretus "set apart, withdrawn, hidden," past participle of secernere "to set apart," from se- "without, apart," properly "on one's own" (from PIE *sed-, from root *s(w)e-; see idiom) + cernere "separate" (see crisis).
As an adjective from c.1400. Secret agent first recorded 1715; secret service is from 1737; secret weapon is from 1936.