Secrete
/sɪˈkriːt/noun
To produce and release a substance, or to hide something carefully and privately.
Did you know?Despite the spooky overlap with *secret*, *secrete* comes from Latin *secernere* meaning “to separate,” and the two words only later converged in English so the body’s hidden fluids got a covert-sounding name.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*krei-
“to sieve, separate, distinguish”
Latin
Latin
cernere
“to sift, separate, discern”
Latin
Latin
secernere
“to separate, set apart”
Late Latin
Latin
secretus
“set apart, hidden, private”
Middle French
Old French
secreter
“to set apart; to produce and discharge”
16th Century
English
secrete
“to separate off; later, to produce and release bodily substances”