# privy

Pronunciation: US say "PRIV-ee" /ˈpɹɪvi/; UK

## Adjective

1. Let in on something and so sharing knowledge of it; usually followed by to.
   - Simple: Allowed to know about something that is kept from most people.
   - _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._
5. Private or exclusive rather than public; belonging to oneself.
   - Simple: Private and only for one person or family, not for the public.
   - _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._

## Noun

2. An outdoor toilet, whether an open latrine or an enclosed outhouse.
   - Simple: A toilet outside a house, sometimes inside a small hut.
   - _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._
3. A room containing a toilet; a lavatory.
   - Simple: A room with a toilet in it.
   - _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._
4. The fixture, typically a bowl with a seat, that people use to relieve themselves.
   - Simple: A toilet, the bowl and seat that people use to get rid of body waste.
   - _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._
6. One who shares in, or has an interest in, a legal action, contract, or similar matter without being a party to it.
   - Simple: A person who is affected by a legal deal or court case but is not one of the people in 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._

## Adjective

7. Secret, hidden, or concealed from view. *(archaic)*
   - Simple: Secret and hidden from other people.
   - _A privy staircase, concealed behind the paneling, led down to the cellar._
   - _Whatever privy fears he carried, he never once spoke of them._

## Origin

From Middle English pryvy, prive, from Old French privé "private", from Latin prīvātus "deprived", the perfect passive participle of prīvō "I deprive; I free, release". It is a doublet of private.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/privy (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).