privy

Pluralprivies

1. 1
   in the knowadjective

   Let in on something and so sharing knowledge of it; usually followed by to.

   Only senior staff were privy to the details of the merger.

   As her closest aide, he was privy to every decision she made during the campaign.

   Similaraware, informed

   Oppositeunaware

   Note

   Of the adjective's meanings, this is the one still in everyday use, and it lives in a single construction: be privy to something, after the verb, never before a noun. It implies being let in on what others are kept from, so the object is usually confidential: discussions, decisions, a princess's volatile love life. Aware of says less, since anyone can be aware of a public fact.

2. 2
   outdoor toiletnouncountable

   An outdoor toilet, whether an open latrine or an enclosed outhouse.

   Before indoor plumbing reached the valley, many farm families used a privy at the end of the garden path.

   Volunteers dug a new privy well away from the stream at the trailhead campsite.

   Similarouthouse, latrine

   Note

   The noun is the adjective put to discreet use: a privy was the private place, much as restroom and convenience avoid naming what happens there. Today it calls up the past or the backcountry, an outhouse at the end of a garden path or a latrine dug well away from a campsite stream.

3. 3
   room with toiletnouncountable

   A room containing a toilet; a lavatory.

   Each floor of the old inn had a single privy at the end of the corridor.

   The castle's privy was a cramped stone room built into the thickness of the wall.

   Similarlavatory, toilet

4. 4
   toilet (object)nouncountable

   The fixture, typically a bowl with a seat, that people use to relieve themselves.

   The bathroom held a porcelain privy and a deep cast-iron tub.

   The cell contained a narrow cot and a steel privy bolted to the floor.

   Similartoilet

5. 5
   privateadjectivehistorical

   Private or exclusive rather than public; belonging to oneself.

   The palace's privy apartments were reserved for the royal family.

   The cost of the banquet came out of the king's privy purse rather than the treasury.

   Similarprivate, personal

   Oppositepublic

   Note

   Fixed names from royal households keep this meaning alive: the privy chamber was a monarch's own rooms, the privy purse a monarch's own money, as against the public treasury. Privy and private are doublets, one Latin word, prīvātus, reaching English by two routes, privy through Old French. Everywhere outside those old names, private does the job.

6. 6
   affected person (law)nouncountable

   One who shares in, or has an interest in, a legal action, contract, or similar matter without being a party to it.

   The court held that the buyer, as a privy of the seller, was bound by the earlier judgment.

   The heirs, as privies of the deceased, were bound by the terms of his lease.

   Note

   Privity is the lawyers' name for the link, and it usually means standing in someone else's shoes: an heir takes the place of the person who died, a buyer the place of the seller, an assignee the place of the original party to a contract. A judgment usually binds the parties and their privies alike. Unlike the "let in on" adjective, it has nothing to do with knowing secrets.

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