volatile secrets
confidential information that would cause a sensation if made public
TRANSLATION
volatile secrets = brisante Geheimnisse (DH) --- GOOGLE INDEX volatile secrets: approximately 20,000 hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
The film is set inside the halls of the FBI, the gatekeeper of the nation's most sensitive and potentially VOLATILE SECRETS.
(trailer description for the movie "Breach")
(trailer description for the movie "Breach")
Did you
know?
volatile secrets
noun
- confidential information that would cause a sensation if made public
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WORD ORIGIN
Volatile is an adjective meaning "likely to change suddenly and unexpectedly or suddenly become violent or angry" (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary). It stems from the Middle French volatile (fine or light or rapidly evaporating) and the Latin volatilis (transitory, flying), which derives from the past participle stem of volare (to fly). The sense of "readily changing, unpredictable" was first recorded in 1647. In Middle English, "volatiles" referred to birds, butterflies and other winged creatures.
The noun/adjective secret (hidden, concealed or private) is borrowed from the Old French secret and directly from the Latin secretus, meaning set apart, withdrawn or hidden. It was originally the past participle of secernere, to set apart (se = without + cernere = separate). The word secretary, someone who works in an office writing letters, making telephone calls and arranging meetings for a person or for an organization, has its roots in the word secret. It originally referred to someone entrusted with secrets and stems from the Medieval Latin secretarius (clerk, notary, confidant, confidential officer).
(source: Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology)
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"He has been with their company the longest and probably knows lots of volatile secrets."
noun
- confidential information that would cause a sensation if made public
---
WORD ORIGIN
Volatile is an adjective meaning "likely to change suddenly and unexpectedly or suddenly become violent or angry" (Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary). It stems from the Middle French volatile (fine or light or rapidly evaporating) and the Latin volatilis (transitory, flying), which derives from the past participle stem of volare (to fly). The sense of "readily changing, unpredictable" was first recorded in 1647. In Middle English, "volatiles" referred to birds, butterflies and other winged creatures.
The noun/adjective secret (hidden, concealed or private) is borrowed from the Old French secret and directly from the Latin secretus, meaning set apart, withdrawn or hidden. It was originally the past participle of secernere, to set apart (se = without + cernere = separate). The word secretary, someone who works in an office writing letters, making telephone calls and arranging meetings for a person or for an organization, has its roots in the word secret. It originally referred to someone entrusted with secrets and stems from the Medieval Latin secretarius (clerk, notary, confidant, confidential officer).
(source: Barnhart Concise Dictionary of Etymology)
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SMUGGLE OWAD INTO TODAY'S CONVERSATION:
"He has been with their company the longest and probably knows lots of volatile secrets."
