different between private vs unseen

English

Etymology

From Latin pr?v?tus (“bereaved, deprived, set apart from”), perfect passive participle of pr?v? (“I bereave, deprive”), from pr?vus (“private, one's own, peculiar”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *per; compare prime, prior, pristine.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p?a?v?t/, /?p?a?v?t/
• Hyphenation: pri?vate

Adjective

private (comparative more private, superlative most private)

1. Belonging to, concerning, or accessible only to an individual person or a specific group.
2. Not accessible by the public.

3. Not in governmental office or employment.
4. Not publicly known; not open; secret.
5. Protected from view or disturbance by others; secluded.

6. Not traded by the public.
7. Secretive; reserved.

8. (US, of a room in a medical facility) Not shared with another patient.
9. (not comparable, object-oriented programming) Accessible only to the class itself or instances of it, and not to other classes or even subclasses.

Synonyms

• (done in the view of others): secluded
• (intended only for one's own use): personal
• (not accessible by the public):
• (not publicly known): secret

Antonyms

• public

Hyponyms

• package-private

Translations

Noun

private (plural privates)

1. A soldier of the lowest rank in the army.
2. A doctor working in privately rather than publicly funded health care.
   • 1973, Health/PAC Bulletin (issues 48-67, page 2)

     In the cities and towns of California, privates are pressuring county governments to close or reduce in size their hospitals and to pay private hospitals for the care of low-income patients. Thus everything is stacked against public hospitals.

   • 1993, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Subcommittee on Immigration and Refugee Affairs, The implementation of employer sanctions: Hearings

     Because you are already moving people with the limitations of what we did in 1982 on the capping of Medicare, you are finding out that the privates are picking up that slack, […]

3. (euphemistic, in the plural) The genitals.
4. (obsolete) A secret message; a personal unofficial communication.
5. (obsolete) Personal interest; particular business.

   • Nor must I be unmindful of my private.

6. (obsolete) Privacy; retirement.
7. (obsolete) One not invested with a public office.
8. (usually in the plural) A private lesson.

Synonyms

• (genitals): bits, private parts

Translations

Derived terms

References

• private at OneLook Dictionary Search
• private in Keywords for Today: A 21st Century Vocabulary, edited by The Keywords Project, Colin MacCabe, Holly Yanacek, 2018.
• "private" in Raymond Williams, Keywords (revised), 1983, Fontana Press, page 242.
• private in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Esperanto

Etymology

From privata (“private”) +? -e (adverbial ending).

Adverb

private

1. privately

German

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -a?t?

Adjective

private

1. inflection of privat:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Italian

Adjective

private

1. feminine plural of privato

Verb

private

1. feminine plural past participle of privare
2. second-person plural indicative present of privare
3. second-person plural imperative of privare

Anagrams

• prative

Latin

Verb

pr?v?te

1. second-person plural present active imperative of pr?v?

Norwegian Bokmål

Adjective

private

1. definite singular of privat
2. plural of privat

Norwegian Nynorsk

Adjective

private

1. definite singular of privat
2. plural of privat

Swedish

Adjective

private

1. absolute definite natural masculine form of privat.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?n?si?n/
• Rhymes: -i?n

Etymology 1

From Middle English unsen, unseyn, unseien, from Old English un?esewen, from Proto-Germanic *unsewanaz, equivalent to un- +? seen. Cognate with Dutch ongezien (“unseen”), German Low German unsehn (“unseen”), German ungesehen (“unseen”).

Adjective

unseen (not comparable)

1. Not seen or discovered; invisible.
   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 9:

     You became to me the visible incarnation of that unseen ideal whose memory haunts us artists like an exquisite dream.

   • 1902, William James, The Varieties of Religious Experience, Lecture 3:

     Were one asked to characterize the life of religion in the broadest and most general terms possible, one might say that it consists of the belief that there is an unseen order, and that our supreme good lies in harmoniously adjusting ourselves thereto.
2. Unskilled; inexperienced.
3. Not hitherto noticed; unobserved.
   • ca. 1594', William Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act I, sc. 2:

     I to the world am like a drop of water

     That in the ocean seeks another drop,

     Who, falling there to find his fellow forth,

     Unseen, inquisitive, confounds himself.

Derived terms

• sight unseen

Translations

Etymology 2

un- +? seen

Verb

unseen

1. past participle of unsee

   What has been seen cannot be unseen.

Noun

unseen (plural unseens)

1. An examination involving material not previously seen or studied.

   I have French and Latin unseens this summer.