Word To Use Today: secretary.

We don't have many secretaries about nowadays, what with computers and feminism and everything, but to be a secretary was once reckoned a respectable position for a young lady with a pretty smile and an efficient, if not off-puttingly innovative, brain.

Secretaries took dictation, typed - and flattered and organised their bosses.

It had never occurred to me before that what they also did - or should have done - was to keep secrets.

But, really, the clue was in the name.

Word To Use Today: secretary. This word comes from the Latin sēcrētārius, from sēcrētum, which means something hidden, from sēcernere to sift, from sē- apart, from cernere to distinguish. 

Secretary birds, on the other hand, are notoriously bad at keeping secrets.

They do look rather as if they have a bunch of quill pens stuck behind the ears they haven't got, though, don't they.


photo © Ben Lunsford