Privately

How to spell privately

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce privately

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does privately mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is not public; in confidence or away from others.

Privately in a sentence

• She told him privately that she planned to resign at the end of the month.

• The firm is privately owned and does not trade its shares on any exchange.

Where does privately come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This adverb is built on the adjective 'private', which English took from the Latin privatus, meaning 'withdrawn from public life' or 'belonging to oneself'. Privatus was the past participle of privare, 'to deprive or set apart', and behind that lay privus, meaning 'single, individual, one's own'. The sense travelled into English in the late 1300s through legal and political language, where a privatus was an ordinary citizen holding no public office, in contrast to a magistrate. The everyday adverb simply adds the native English suffix '-ly' to turn the adjective into a manner word, so 'privately' literally means 'in a private way'. The same privus root quietly survives in words like 'privilege' (a private law) and 'deprive', and the simple '-ately' ending, with its unstressed middle vowel, is the main thing writers slip on.

How the word is built

• privat- (from Latin privatus: set apart, belonging to one person)
• -ly (adverb suffix)