secrecy

Alteration (on model of primacy, etc) of Late Middle English secretee, from Old French secré.

• IPA^(key): /ˈsiːkɹəsi/

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secrecy (countable and uncountable, plural secrecies)

1. Concealment; the condition of being secret or hidden.
   • 1910, Emerson Hough, chapter II, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, OCLC 639762314, page 0147:

     Carried somehow, somewhither, for some reason, on these surging floods, were these travelers, […]. Even such a boat as the Mount Vernon offered a total deck space so cramped as to leave secrecy or privacy well out of the question, even had the motley and democratic assemblage of passengers been disposed to accord either.

2. The habit of keeping secrets.

• dern