Secretarial describes work, skills, or a job that belongs to a secretary: the person who keeps an office running. That can mean letters, diaries, phone calls, filing, booking rooms, and making sure papers are in the right place before a meeting. A secretarial course trains those skills; secretarial staff are the people hired to do them; a secretarial job is that kind of post. The word is about the type of work, not about keeping secrets — though the two ideas sit next to each other in English history, because a secretary once was the person trusted with private letters. Today it can sound a little old-fashioned. Many offices now say admin, assistant, or PA. Used kindly, it still names a real craft: being organised, precise, and good with people and paper. Used carelessly, it has sometimes been a way to talk down to women’s office work, so the tone matters.