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This week we will present furtive words: words of hiding and secrecy.

camarilla — a group of confidential, often scheming advisers; a cabal
    … 'a camarilla of all-powerful Ustashi officers and scheming politicians', who had taken control of what remainded of the disintegrating state of Croatia, …
    — Stephen Dorril, MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service

    … tell a camarilla of anti-Diem generals that, if they overthrew Diem, the United States would recognize their new regime.
    — Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr, Robert Kennedy and His Times
 
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doggo — 'lie doggo' Brit. informal, dated: remain motionless and quiet to escape detection
    I though, my God, he is trying te hypnotize me; and then, I must play by the rules, but I'll lie doggo and pretend I am hypnotized.
    — John Fowles, The Magus
 
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in camera1. in secret; privately 2. law: in private with a judge rather than in open court
    Queensland Health employees had only been willing to give their evidence in camera for fear of retribution.
    — Sunshine Coast Daily (Australia), Sept. 30, 2006
 
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<Asa Lovejoy>
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quote:
in secret; privately


How does this contrast with sub rosa?
 
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Here's a rare one.

latitation — lying in concealment; hiding; lurking
latibulum — a concealed hiding place; a burrow; a lair; a hole
    The warden took a key ring from his pocket. … "We have the Major in the latibulum. It's where we keep the most gruesome cases, out of public viewing …*
    — Peter Quinn, Banished Children of Eve


Extra, added bonus word:

sub rosa — happening or done in secret
    I run my boat into New York, buy from Yankee firms, sub rosa,of course, and away I go.
    — Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind

    Foreign countries in the region who were supplying sub-rosa assistance to the U.S. were about to make decisions that would put them at even greater risk …
    — Bob Woodward, Plan of Attack
 
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How does this contrast with sub rosa?

Offhand, I'd say that sub rosa originally meant in private by convention (i.e., standing under some ornamental architectural device), while in camera meant in private because people meeting so were separated from the rest in a different room (or chamber).

The Latin preposition in is an interesting one. With the accusative, it meanings motion into, but with the ablative it can mean either on top of or inside.


Ceci n'est pas un seing.
 
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The rose was a symbol of secrecy, and was usually painted or moulded on the ceiling of a king's privy chambers. Anything that was said sub rosa, "under the rose", was secret. Sub rosa, therefore, meant "in secret". In camera means "in private" - not necessarily the same as "in secret".


Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
 
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priest's hole — a secret chamber or hiding-place for a (Roman Catholic) priest (in times of the penal laws)
    Miss Marple didn't see how architecture could come into it, though it might, she supposed. A priest's hole, perhaps? One of the houses they were going to visit might have a priest's hole which would contain a skeleton.
    — Agatha Christie, Nemesis

    The priest's hole and the concealed staircase are at your service.
    — Dorothy L. Sayers, Murder Must Advertise
 
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star chamber — characterized by secrecy and often being irresponsibly arbitrary and oppressive
    The Motion Picture Association of America's film rating system … is a joke. It will slap a restrictive rating on the mere flash of a woman's breast and not even blink at the most gruesome violence imaginable. It's much easier on large-budget studio productions than low-budget independent films. And it operates as a star chamber, dispensing its judgments in total secrecy.
    — Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Sept. 22, 2006
 
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I have noticed that journalists and officers reporting from Iraq will say they uncovered a (phonetic) "ca-SHAY" of weapons. They mean a cache - a hiding place, which is pronounced as in cash bar. They are confusing it with the word cachet (pronounced ca-SHAY)-meaning prestige, style or stamp of approval.
 
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Originally posted by missann:
I have noticed that journalists and officers reporting from Iraq will say they uncovered a (phonetic) "ca-SHAY" of weapons. They mean a cache - a hiding place, which is pronounced as in cash bar. They are confusing it with the word cachet (pronounced ca-SHAY)-meaning prestige, style or stamp of approval.


Maybe they mean that finding the weapons gets the General's approval. Smile


"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
 
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