喜樂美語
  1. 1知情（的）；(舊) 戶外廁所

    "Privy" mostly appears in the phrase "privy to something." If you are privy to information, you know about it — often something private or secret that not many people know. It sounds a little formal; you would read it in news reports or careful writing more than hear it in daily talk ("Only a few managers were privy to the plan before it was announced"). There is also an old, less common noun sense: a "privy" was an outdoor toilet, a small building with no plumbing, from long ago before houses had bathrooms inside. Today most people only meet this old meaning in history books or old stories, not in real life.

From the word’s history

From Middle English pryvy, from Old French privé 'private', from Latin prīvātus; doublet of private.

源自古法文 privé「私人的」，和 private 同源。

Wiktionary

組成From an old French word meaning "private" — the same root you can hear inside the word "private" itself.

同家族的字

  • privatecomes from the same old root meaning 'not public'

原始詞典資料7 筆記錄

以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。

privyadj/ˈpɹɪvi/

  • 1

    historicalPrivate, exclusive; not public; one's own.

    • The king retreated to his privy chamber.
    • the privy purse
  • 2

    archaicSecret, hidden, concealed.

    • Nonetheless, in the dark and privy stillness of our minds there are few of us who are not still haunted by worrisome doubts.
  • 3

    With knowledge of; party to; let in on.

    • He was privy to the discussions.
    • William understood Diana more but idealized her less. He was privy to her volatile love life. He knew the tabloids made her life hell, but he also knew she colluded with them.

privynoun/ˈpɹɪvi/

  • 1

    An outdoor facility for urination and defecation, whether open (latrine) or enclosed (outhouse).

  • 2

    A lavatory: a room with a toilet.

    • To counteract these degrading effects he advised that the privy should be in every house the room nearest to heaven, […].
  • 3

    A toilet: a fixture used for urination and defecation.

    • Arconum—I found two chairs wanting in the gentlemen's room, and the bath room attached applied to other purposes... the privies and urinaries clean...
  • 4

    lawA partaker; one having an interest in an action, contract, etc. to which he is not himself a party.

摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。