different between secrecy vs privity

English

Etymology

Alteration (on model of primacy, etc) of Late Middle English secretee, from Old French secré.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?si?k??si/

Noun

secrecy (countable and uncountable, plural secrecies)

1. Concealment; the condition of being secret or hidden.

   I was sworn to secrecy

   • Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

2. The habit of keeping secrets.

Synonyms

• dern

Related terms

• secretiveness

Translations

Anagrams

• Creecys

English

Etymology

From Anglo-Norman priveté, privitee et al., Old French priveté, from privé + -té.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?p??v?ti/

Noun

privity (countable and uncountable, plural privities)

1. (obsolete) A divine mystery; something known only to God, or revealed only in holy scriptures. [12th–16th c.]
2. (now rare, archaic) Privacy, secrecy. [from 13th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ix:

     Him oft and oft I askt in priuitie, / Of what loines and what lignage I did spring […].

3. (obsolete) A private matter, a secret. [14th–17th c.]
4. (archaic, in the plural) The genitals. [from 14th c.]
5. (law) A relationship between parties seen as being a result of their mutual interest or participation in a given transaction, e.g. contract, estate, etc. [from 16th c.]
6. The fact of being privy to something; knowledge, compliance. [from 16th c.]
   • 1751, Tobias Smollett, The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle, I.14:

     But this acknowledgement was made without the privity of his wife, whose vicious aversion he was obliged, in appearance, to adopt.

Derived terms

• horizontal privity
• vertical privity