Privy

How to spell privy

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce privy

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does privy mean?

1. adjectiveSharing in the knowledge of something secret or confidential, usually in the phrase 'privy to'.
2. nounA small outdoor toilet, typically a simple outhouse without plumbing.

Privy in a sentence

• adjective

  Only three executives were privy to the merger plans.

• noun

  The old farmhouse still had a wooden privy at the bottom of the garden.

• adjective

  As the family lawyer, she was privy to details no one else knew.

• noun

  Campers used a basic privy dug behind the cabins.

Where does privy come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word travelled into English in the 1200s from Old French prive, which meant 'private', 'intimate', or 'belonging to oneself'. That French word descended from the Latin privatus, the past participle of privare, meaning 'to set apart' or 'to deprive', built on privus, meaning 'single' or 'one's own'. The same Latin root sits beneath the everyday words 'private', 'privilege', and 'deprive', so the connection to anything personal or set aside from the public runs through them all. The adjective sense, being secretly in the know, kept the idea of something kept private among a few intimates, as in being 'privy to' a confidence. The noun sense, an outdoor toilet, grew from the same notion of a private place; people once spoke of a 'privy chamber' for any private room before the word narrowed to the outhouse. Remembering that the root is the same as in 'private' helps fix the single v and the -y ending.

How the word is built

• priv- (from Latin privatus: private, set apart)
• -y (adjective/noun suffix)