The Signification of Words: Privacy, feat. the OED
by J. L. David
Definition and examples of “Privacy”, as authored by the first edition of The Oxford English Dictionary, via the Internet Archive.
Why does the phrase “Privacy Online” sound like the cacophonous chirp of a local morning news stinger?
Because it’s total bullshit.
“Privacy Online” is part of a vernacular that is fundamentally incapable of describing the needs of today. “Privacy” can not exist in a public place; and the internet is a public space. It is participatory by design. The whole point of network connectivity is to connect separate things without the restraints of distance and time. Privacy requires the opposite— a single thing be singular in a clearly defined space and time.
Many of the bread-and-butter phrases use are wildly outdated, and in turn, are wildly ineffective. We cannot reasonably expect our discussions about digital rights to advance in any meaningful manner if we continue using this kinda-sorta sometimes-applicable terminology that is up for dangerously roomy debate.
Privacy is a state of being.
Privacy exists wholly, or it does not exist at all. Private, public. Adhering to the idea that somehow a “privacy policy” can properly operate as a legal contingency in a public space is just ridiculous.
And it’s getting annoying AF. To break the habit of relying on square words to describe a circulating world, let’s disroot them. Completely. Dig up pinnacle resources now hundreds of years old, because the veterans of the English language would want nothing of this bullshit.
In their own words, the Oxford English Dictionary “has been the last word on words for over a century.” While presumptuously subjective, the landmark achievement of completing an unprecedented ten-volume English Language dictionary unarguably has cemented the OED in its rightful place within the upper echelon of linguistic reference. Thus, an obvious place to begin.
The Oxford English Dictionary
Being a corrected re-issue with an introduction, supplement, and bibliography of a New English Dictionary on historical principals, founded mainly on the materials collected by the Philological Society.
Oxford, at the Clarendon Press, 1913.
Privacy
[ f. PRIVATE a. : SEE -CY. ]
The state or quality of being private.
1.
The state or condition of being withdrawn from the society of others, or from public interest; seclusion.
c.1450 St Cuthbert.
(Surtees), 61
To kepe baim in pruiance.
1606 SHAKS.
Tr., Cr. III, iii, 190
Of this my priuacie, I have strong reasons. But ‘gainst your priuacie The reasons are more potent and heroycall.
1655 HEYLIN.
Cosmogr. To Rdr. A iij
Some time to spare; some privacies and retreats from business; some breathing fits from the affairs of our Vocations.
1659 T. PACKE.
Parnassi Pnerp. 168
Vespasian during this Privacie, Led such a Life, as was Exemplary.
1759 JOHNSON.
Idler No. 51, p1
Those that surround them in their domestic privacies.
1832 LYTTON.
Eugene A, II. iv
Your privacy will never be disturbed.
1865 EMERSON.
Eng. Traits, Manners, Wks. (Bohn) II, 48
The motive and end.. is to guard the independence and privacy of their homes.
2.
pl. Private or retired places; private apartments; places of retreat. Now rare.
1678 R. L’ESTRANGE
Serena’s Mor, (1776), 304
It soars aloft, and enters into the privacies of Nature.
1749 FIELDING
Tom Jones xvi, vii
Do you think yourself at Liberty to invade the Privacies of Women of Condition, without the least Decency or Notice?
1878 LANIER
Poems (1884), 14
Beautiful glooms.. Wildwood privacies, closets of lone desire.
b.
A secret place, a place of concealment.
1668 PLOT
Stafforish, 307
Having rested at Bonocoble two days, one in the Oak; the Night in a privacy behind the Chimney in one of the Chambers.
3.
Absence or avoidance of publicity or display; a condition approaching to secrecy or concealment.
1598 SHAKS
Marry W., iv, v, 24
Let her descent: my Chambers are honourable: Fie, privacy? Fie.
1641 CLARENDON
Hist. Reb., I. 81
The Duke… took a resolution once more to make a Visit to that great Lady, which he believed he might do with great privacy.
1700 Pennsylv. Archives
I. 129
I caused this Town to be searched but with some Privacy.
1809 WELLINGTON
in Gurw. Desp. (1838) V. 167
I have also to observe that privacy is inconsistent with every just notion of punishment.
1855 MACAULAY
Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 403
The emaciated corpse was laid, with all privacy, next to the corpse of Monmouth in the chapel of the Tower.
1876 J. SAUNDERS
Lion in Path, i
A marriage was solmnied with strict privacy in the chapel of Leigh Court, Yorkshire.
1879 R. K. DOUGLAS
Confucianism iii. 77
No darkness conceals from its view, and no privacy hides from its knowledge.
1598 SHAKS
Marry W., iv, v, 24
Let her descent: my Chambers are honourable: Fie, privacy? Fie.
b.
Keeping of a secret, reticence. Obs.
1736 AINSWORTH
Eng-Lat. Dict.,
Privacy, or keeping of counsel, taciturnitas, 3. silentium, 2.
4.
A private matter, a secret; pl. private or personal matters or relations. Now rare.
1591 HORSEY
Trav. (Hakl. Soc.) 236
Som other privacies comitted to my charge had ben so whispered owt.
1649 MILTON
Eikon vii (1847) 239/1
What concerns it us to hear a husband divulge his household privacies, extolling to others the virtues of his wife?
1702 Eng. Theophrast.
46
A blab, and one that shall make a privacy as public as a proclamation.
1759 JOHNSON
Rasselas xi
If he descend to the privacies of life, their habitations are more commodious, and their possessions are more secure.
1855 MACAULAY
Hist. Eng. xiv. III. 403
The emaciated corpse was laid, with all privacy, next to the corpse of Monmouth in the chapel of the Tower.
b.
pl. The private parts. Obs.
1656 EARL MONM.
Boccalini’s Advts. fr. P. I. xxxv
Plucking up her cloaths, and shewing them her privacies.
5.
Intimacy, confidential relations. Obs.
1638 BAKER tr.
Balnac’s Lett. (vol. II.) 20
At that time.. you gave me leave to boast of your friendship, I dare not now use the privacie of such tearmes.
1653 CAMDEN
Nicolas Papers II. 27
He.. observed that there was great intimacy and privacy between that Col. and Sr John Henderson.
1683 A. D.
Art Converse 42
Those that are our equals or have made us such by their privacy or intimate friendship.
6.
The state of being privy to some act; -PRIVITY. rare.
1719 YOUNG
Revenge II, i
And now I come a mutual friend to both, Without his privacy, to let you know it.
1888 PALL MALL G.
23 July 1/2
The amendment leaves the whole question as to the privacy to crime alleged against Mr. Parnell and his fellow members before the Commission.
How far did you get before tuning out? No worries. Revisiting these definition gets grating. We get used to the general theme after the first few entries. Fie, privacy? Fie. It becomes abundantly easy, if not natural, to weaken our posture and forget the comically skewed angle from which we are reading them.
These early copies of Oxford dictionaries are accessible to read by anyone, purely for the sake of intellectual curiosity and equal access to information. A truly Enlightenment-era ethos, and a passion for knowledge that is abundantly clear within each entry of the OED.
But this libre spirit isn’t coming from the one place you expect; the Oxford University Press (OUP, the current body behind the seminal dictionaries). Access to their hundreds-years worth of work is so restricted, in fact, that investigations into such have grown into a devoted inquiry of its own concern. More on this to come.
Instead, the pioneering spirit is continued by the Internet Archive, the irreplaceable non-profit whose mission to provide Universal Access to All Knowledge has resulted in a living, breathing digital library that sincerely makes the OED seem like peanuts from a bygone era.
Which begs the question… have other veterans of the English Language taken the same narrowing path?
