English
secrete
Secrete comes from Latin sēcrētus ‘put apart, sundered, severed, separated,…’, from cernō ‘to see, to discern’, and ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *krey- ‘to sift, separate, divide’.
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krey-‘to sift, separate, divide’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*krinō‘to sift, separate’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcernō‘to see, to discern’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsēcernō‘to separate’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsēcrētus‘put apart, sundered, severed, separated, having been separated’perfect passive participle of sēcernō
- Englishearliest quotation 1842secrete
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*krey-‘to sift, separate, divide’reconstructed
- Proto-Italicc. 1500–700 BCE*krinō‘to sift, separate’reconstructed
- Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEcernō‘to see, to discern’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsēcernō‘to separate’
- Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEsēcrētus‘put apart, sundered, severed, separated, having been separated’perfect passive participle of sēcernō
- Englishearliest quotation 1842secrete
Earliest quotation: 1842, William Benjamin Carpenter: “Why one set of cells should secrete bile, another…”
The story
First directly attested in 1728; attested as the past-participial adjective secreted in 1707: from Latin sēcrētus, perfect passive participle of sēcernō (‘to separate’); reinforced by back-formation from secretion; compare secern; cognate with French sécréter and the Spanish secretar.
Linked words
through Proto-Indo-European *krey- ‘to sift, separate, divide’
certain, crime, criminal, crisis, critic, critique, riddle, criterion, hypocrite, discernible, endocrine, discreet, discernment, rime, incrimination, incriminate, ridder, certitude, criterium, recrimination, excrete, 46 more
through Latin cernō ‘to see, to discern’
discrimination, discretion, discern, discriminate, discrete, excrement, excretion, 10 more
Today it means
verb To extract a substance from blood, sap, or similar to produce and emit waste for excretion or for the fulfilling of a physiological function.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *krey- / secrete