surreptitious

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin surrēptīcius (“furtive, clandestine”), from surrēpō (“to creep along”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˌsʌɹɪpˈtɪʃəs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /səˌɹɛpˈtɪʃəs/, /ˌsʌɹəpˈtɪʃəs/, /ˌsɛɹəpˈtɪʃəs/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪʃəs

Adjective

surreptitious (comparative more surreptitious, superlative most surreptitious)

1. Stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert (especially movements).
   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.

   • 1998, Lee A. Bygrave, “Data Protection Pursuant to the Right to Privavy in Human Rights Treaties”, in International Journal of Law and Information Technology, volume 6, number 3, pages 260–261:

     It is also worth noting the case law on prisoners' correspondence which establishes that interception of a person's communications need not be surreptitious in order to amount to an interference with respect to Art 8 (1) [ECHR].

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:covert

Derived terms

• surreptitious advertisement
• surreptitious advertising
• surreptitiously
• surreptitiousness

Related terms

• subreption
• surreptition

Translations

stealthy, furtive, well hidden, covert

• Bulgarian: прикрит (bg) (prikrit), таен (bg) (taen), подмолен (bg) (podmolen)
• Catalan: subreptici, clandestí (ca), furtiu
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偷偷的, 不为人知的

• Czech: tajný (cs), skrytý (cs), utajovaný, tutlaný, ututlaný
• Dutch: heimelijk (nl), steels (nl), verdoken (nl), verdekt (nl)
• Finnish: salainen (fi), salamyhkäinen (fi)
• French: furtif (fr), subreptice (fr)
• German: heimlich (de), verdeckt (de), verstohlen (de), betrügerisch (de), erschlichen (de)
• Hungarian: alattomos (hu)
• Icelandic: laumulegur (is), í laumi (is), leynilegur (is)
• Italian: surrettizio (it), subdolo (it), furbesco, furtivo (it)
• Kurdish:

  Northern Kurdish: dizîkî (ku), nehînî (ku), razberî (ku)

• Macedonian: скри́шен (skríšen), та́ен (táen)
• Maori: whakahewa
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: skjult, dulgt, fordekt (no), hemmelig (no)

• Occitan: subreptici, furtiu (oc)
• Plautdietsch: heemlich
• Portuguese: sub-reptício (pt), furtivo (pt)
• Russian: та́йный (ru) (tájnyj), скры́тый (ru) (skrýtyj)
• Serbo-Croatian: potajno (sh)
• Spanish: subrepticio (es)
• Swedish: dold (sv)
• Ukrainian: таємний (tajemnyj), потайний (potajnyj)