FURTIVE

[Dr. Goodword]

• furtive •

Pronunciation: fêrt-iv • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Adjective

Meaning: Surreptitious, shifty, secretive, stealthy in an attempt to hide something.

Notes: The sound [fêr] is spelled several different ways in English: fur, fir and, in some dialects, for and far (neither of which we encourage). So, you must remember that this word begins with the word for soft animal hair. The adverb is furtively and the noun, furtiveness.

In Play: Today's Good Word may be used positively or negatively. Furtiveness can imply a cover-up of improper behavior: "Calvin worried about the furtive dealings between his friend, Murray, and a shady character he met at the race track." It may also imply the cover up of a perfectly innocent enterprise: "Mom noticed none of the furtive preparations for the surprise birthday party for her going on at the house."

Word History: This Good Word comes from our usual source of loan words, Latin furtivus "stolen, purloined", via French furtif (feminine furtive). The Latin adjective comes from furtum "theft", itself from fur "thief". No, this word has nothing to do with the fur trade but is related to Latin ferre "to carry", since thieves are known for carrying things off. The same original root, *bher- "to carry", ended up in English as bear (the verb), burden, and birth. (There is nothing furtive in our gratitude to Lew Jury for suggesting today's Good Word.)

[Slava]

This being the eerie season, perhaps we are all well advised to take furtive glances around the corners to make sure we aren't taken unawares by a basilisk, or some other horror.

Boo!

[LukeJavan8]

As a teacher I used to be totally amazed
when a student began to look furtively around
his/her desk: definitely up to something.