“Secrete” Meaning Hide Comes from “Secret,” but Has Second-Syllable Stress with a Long E

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. This is Tyler calling from West Bend, Wisconsin.

Hi, Tyler.

Hey, what’s up, buddy?

My question is about the word secreting, as in to hide something away. Last year, I was listening to the audiobook of Gone Girl, and the reader pronounced it secreting. And I thought that sounded awful, but I also thought it was probably just a mistake. But then last week, I was listening to Morning Edition with my wife, a reporter also pronounced it secreting. And since NPR is our gold standard, I kind of thought, wow, maybe I’m wrong here and maybe that’s a legitimate way to pronounce it. So I thought I’d ask you guys because you’re also my gold standard.

Oh, thank you very much.

He’s copper.

So this would be like secreting somebody’s will in a roll-top desk or something like that? Secreting an envelope in your overcoat so nobody sees it, that kind of thing?

Yeah, it does sound really weird.

It sounds right to me.

I know.

It sounds right.

Oh, really?

Because I’ve always pronounced it secreted, you know, as in keeping a secret.

Oh, yeah.

You’re not the only one, dude.

Including me, Tyler. I did the same thing until just very recently. Here’s the story here. So a verb secrete, one meaning has to emit a fluid, right? Bees secrete honey. The second meaning means to hide away. And that second meaning comes from the word secret, but isn’t pronounced like secret in any of its forms, including when it’s conjugated or inflected. So it is always secreted. It’s secrete. You secrete the letter in the floorboards. She secreted the letter in the floorboards. She is secreting the letter in the floorboards.

I think that just sounds gross, don’t you, Tyler?

And here’s the thing is the verb to secret something once existed in English, but it is archaic and obsolete and isn’t used.

Yeah.

But I can tell you why you made the mistake. When you’re reading, when you see the word secreted, you can’t tell that that E in the ED actually comes from the root word. It looks like the root is secret. And so it’s a really logical mistake to make.

Okay.

I made it all my life. My mother was an English teacher, and she would always talk about this or that being secreted away.

Well, yeah, and it just seems like, you know, to secret something away, but secrete is to, like, bring something forth, you know?

Yeah, good point.

I mean, that’s what I always took it as. So, wow, it’s not just that there are two pronunciations. It’s just that I’ve always been saying it wrong.

Yeah, English pranked you, and you fell for it.

Oh, no.

Well, I appreciate your help.

Yeah, Tyler, I’m afraid we’ve been punked, you and I.

Yeah.

Well, I guess I will just, I’ll probably just stop using that word.

All right, cool.

Thanks for calling, dude.

All right, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Tyler.

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