Word Meanings - SECRETARY - Book Publishers vocabulary database

secretari, Sp. & Pg. secretario, It. secretario, segretario) LL. secretarius, originally, a confidant, one intrusted with secrets, 1. One who keeps, or is intrusted with, secrets. 2. A person employed to write orders, letters, dispatches, public

Additional info about word: SECRETARY

secretari, Sp. & Pg. secretario, It. secretario, segretario) LL. secretarius, originally, a confidant, one intrusted with secrets, 1. One who keeps, or is intrusted with, secrets. 2. A person employed to write orders, letters, dispatches, public or private papers, records, and the like; an official scribe, amanuensis, or writer; one who attends to correspondence, and transacts other business, for an association, a public body, or an individual. That which is most of all profitable is acquaintance with the secretaries, and employed men of ambassadors. Bacon. 3. An officer of state whose business is to superintend and manage the affairs of a particular department of government, and who is usually a member of the cabinet or advisory council of the chief executive; as, the secretary of state, who conducts the correspondence and attends to the relations of a government with foreign courts; the secretary of the treasury, who manages the department of finance; the secretary of war, etc. 4. A piece of furniture, with conveniences for writing and for the arrangement of papers; an escritoire. allusion to the tufts of feathers at the back of its head, which were large long-legged raptorial bird , native of South Africa, but now naturalized in the West Indies and some other tropical countries. It has a powerful hooked beak, a crest of long feathers, and a long tail. It feeds upon reptiles of various kinds, and is much prized on account of its habit of killing and devouring snakes of all kinds. Called also serpent eater. Syn. -- See the Note under Clerk, n., 4.

Related words: (words related to SECRETARY)

• PUBLIC-SPIRITED
  1. Having, or exercising, a disposition to advance the interest of the community or public; as, public-spirited men. 2. Dictated by a regard to public good; as, a public-spirited project or measure. Addison. -- Pub"lic-spir`it*ed*ly,
• PUBLICLY
  1. With exposure to popular view or notice; without concealment; openly; as, property publicly offered for sale; an opinion publicly avowed; a declaration publicly made. 2. In the name of the community. Addison.
• PERSONNEL
  The body of persons employed in some public service, as the army, navy, etc.; -- distinguished from matériel.
• PERSONIFICATION
  A figure of speech in which an inanimate object or abstract idea is represented as animated, or endowed with personality; prosopopas, the floods clap their hands. "Confusion heards his voice." Milton. (more info) 1. The act of personifying;
• PUBLIC SCHOOL
  In Great Britain, any of various schools maintained by the community, wholly or partly under public control, or maintained largely by endowment and not carried on chiefly for profit; specif., and commonly, any of various select and usually
• PUBLIC-SERVICE CORPORATION; QUASI-PUBLIC CORPORATION
  A corporation, such as a railroad company, lighting company, water company, etc., organized or chartered to follow a public calling or to render services more or less essential to the general public convenience or safety.
• PUBLICNESS
  1. The quality or state of being public, or open to the view or notice of people at large; publicity; notoriety; as, the publicness of a sale. 2. The quality or state of belonging to the community; as, the publicness of property. Boyle.
• PUBLICAN
  A farmer of the taxes and public revenues; hence, a collector of toll or tribute. The inferior officers of this class were often oppressive in their exactions, and were regarded with great detestation. As Jesus at meat . . . many publicans
• PERSONIZE
  To personify. Milton has personized them. J. Richardson.
• PUBLICATION
  1. The act of publishing or making known; notification to the people at large, either by words, writing, or printing; proclamation; divulgation; promulgation; as, the publication of the law at Mount Sinai; the publication of the gospel;
• PERSONATE
  To celebrate loudly; to extol; to praise. In fable, hymn, or song so personating Their gods ridiculous. Milton.
• PERSONATOR
  One who personates. "The personators of these actions." B. Jonson.
• WRITER
  1. One who writes, or has written; a scribe; a clerk. They that handle the pen of the writer. Judg. v. 14. My tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Ps. xlv. 1. 2. One who is engaged in literary composition as a profession; an author; as, a writer
• WRITE
  to scratch, to score; akin to OS. writan to write, to tear, to wound, D. rijten to tear, to rend, G. reissen, OHG. rizan, Icel. rita to 1. To set down, as legible characters; to form the conveyance of meaning; to inscribe on any material
• PUBLICITY
  The quality or state of being public, or open to the knowledge of a community; notoriety; publicness.
• EMPLOYER
  One who employs another; as, an employer of workmen.
• PERSONAL
  Denoting person; as, a personal pronoun. Personal action , a suit or action by which a man claims a debt or personal duty, or damages in lieu of it; or wherein he claims satisfaction in damages for an injury to his person or property,
• PERSONIFY
  1. To regard, treat, or represent as a person; to represent as a rational being. The poets take the liberty of personifying inanimate things. Chesterfield. 2. To be the embodiment or personification of; to impersonate; as, he personifies the law.
• PERSONIFIER
  One who personifies.
• PUBLIC-MINDED
  Public-spirited. -- Pub"lic-mind`ed*ness, n.
• UNEMPLOYMENT
  Quality or state of being not employed; -- used esp. in economics, of the condition of various social classes when temporarily thrown out of employment, as those engaged for short periods, those whose trade is decaying, and those least competent.
• REWRITE
  To write again. Young.
• ABORIGINALLY
  Primarily.
• PLAYWRITER
  A writer of plays; a dramatist; a playwright. Lecky.
• STORY-WRITER
  1. One who writes short stories, as for magazines. 2. An historian; a chronicler. "Rathums, the story-writer." 1 Esdr. ii. 17.
• UNIPERSONAL
  Used in only one person, especially only in the third person, as some verbs; impersonal. (more info) 1. Existing as one, and only one, person; as, a unipersonal God.
• UNDERWRITER
  One who underwrites his name to the conditions of an insurance policy, especially of a marine policy; an insurer.