Securitate

From Romanian Securitate (from securitate (“security”)), short for Direcţia Generală a Securităţii Poporului (“General Directorate for the Security of the People”), later Departamentul Securităţii Statului (“Department for State Security”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪkjʊəɹɪˈtɑːteɪ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪkjʊɹɪˈtɑteɪ/

Securitate

1. (now historical) The official state security and secret police force of Romania under Communist rule. [from 20th c.]
   • 1999, Chris Stephen, The Observer, 19 Dec 1999:

     My young interpreter scowls, inserting into her translation her own memories of six-hour queues to buy milk, and of the feared Securitate secret police.

   • 2012, John Sweeney, ‘At War with Ceausescu’, Literary Review, issue 399:

     Even our Securitate-approved minders went into a mental coma when we questioned the genius of the Genius of the Carpathians, Nicolae Ceauşescu.