sub rosa
UK /ˌsʌb ˈɹəʊzə/ · US /ˌsʌb ˈɹoʊzə/ adverb, adjective, noun
Forms subrosa sub-rosa
- adverb Covertly or in secret; confidentially, privately, secretly. “They held the meeting sub rosa.”
- adjective Carried out confidentially or secretly.
- adjective Not formally stated; implicit, tacit, unspoken.
- noun (US, law, slang) Covert surveillance video used as evidence against applicants for workers' compensation to show they are not in fact (seriously) injured.
Synonyms
behind the scenes under the rose under the table abstruse catlike backroom backstairs stealth clandestine cloak-and-dagger concealed confidential covert deep-laid dern disguised furtive huggermugger hush-hush inconspicuous
Antonyms
above-board openly publicly open public explicit expressed spoken
Etymology
The adverb and adjective are an unadapted borrowing from Late Latin sub rosā (literally “under the rose”), from Latin sub (“beneath, under”) + rosa (“rose”) (possibly from Ancient Greek ῥόδον (rhódon, “rose”), ultimately from Proto-Iranian *wardah (“flower; rose”) and Proto-Indo-European *Hwerdʰ-, possibly a metathesis of *h₁lewdʰ- (“to grow; to rise”)). The reason for the reference to a rose is uncertain, though it has been suggested that it derives from the Ancient Greek myth that Aphrodite (the goddess of love) gave a rose to her son Eros (the god of love and sex), who in turn gave it to Harpocrates (the god of silence, confidentiality, and secrets) to ensure that Aphrodite’s sexual indiscretions were not revealed. Roses thus became a symbol of secrecy—they were, for example, used at meetings to pledge the participants not to disclose what had been discussed. Compare under the rose which is attested earlier.
The noun is derived from the adverb and adjective.
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “sub rosa”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details