Did you mean sub Rosa?
Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. In secret; privately or confidentially: held the meeting sub rosa.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Under the rose; privately. The rose is the emblem of silence.
Wiktionary
- adj. Carried out secretly or confidentially
- adv. In secret or covertly; privately or confidentially
- n. Slang. Used in Workers' Compensation cases to mean covert surveillance video used to catch Workers' Compensation applicants and show that they are in fact not injured. Also spelled subrosa.
WordNet 3.0
- adv. in secret or covertly
Etymologies
- Latin sub rosā, under the rose (from the practice of hanging a rose over a meeting as a symbol of confidentiality) : sub, under + rosā, ablative of rosa, rose.
Examples
“You will remember that there was nothing sub rosa about Gregori's arrival in this country — it sparked off a minor international crisis, the Italians being hopping mad that one of their top-notch bio-chemists should turn his back on his own country and go to work in Britain.”
The Satan Bug
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sub rosa’.
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Why I adore this site
A collection of words and phrases that keep me coming back for more.
a priori, why I adore this ..., Chrysotus edwadsi, bletted, casu marzu, darner, melittologist, nabob, omne trinum perfe..., pi-stachio, pinnacle of the b..., pseudomantid and 15 more...
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Hiding in plain sight
anticryptic, camouflage, chameleon, xenomorphic, obfusc, stegnographic, stealth, dissemble, dissimulate, mask, masquerade, screen and 26 more...
lampbane The worst episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Sometimes things aren't just bad, they're Sub Rosa-bad. Oct 27, 2008
bilby "The similarity was eerie precise because there was on one thing the protesting, horrified eye could pin it on. It was sub rosa, deeply buried between the lines, but so real it shrieked: that trick of crossing the feet during the stretch, of splaying the fingers stiffly beside either thigh, the tight little crinkle of the eyes."
- 'The Dark Half', Stephen King. Dec 31, 2007
seanmeade Sub rosa comes from the Latin, literally "under the rose," from the ancient association of the rose with confidentiality, the origin of which traces to a famous story in which Cupid gave Harpocrates, the god of silence, a rose to bribe him not to betray the confidence of Venus. Hence the ceilings of Roman banquet-rooms were decorated with roses to remind guests that what was spoken 'sub vino' (under the influence of wine) was also sub rosa. Mar 26, 2007