privity means A divine mystery; something known only to God, or revealed only in holy scriptures. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 85 out of 100.
Why this word is great
PRIVITY — [Noun] A recognized, mutual relationship of shared knowledge or interest between specific parties, often forming the basis for legal rights or duties. From Anglo-Norman priveté, privitee, from Old French priveté ("privacy, intimacy, secret"), from privé ("private") + the suffix -té (denoting a state or condition). Unlike "privacy" (a passive shield against the world's gaze) or "secrecy" (an active concealment of fact), privity is the exclusive corridor of a sanctioned, mutual understanding. It is the unspoken pact binding executor and heir, the confidential whisper between lawyer and client, and the exact contractual filament connecting a manufacturer to an unseen buyer. This formal intimacy is the architecture of exclusive knowing, where obligations are forged in the quiet spaces between souls.
noun
- A divine mystery; something known only to God, or revealed only in holy scriptures.“But yet there is a place that men clepe the school of God, where he was wont to teach his disciples, and told them the privities of heaven.”
- Privacy, secrecy.“Him oft and oft I askt in priuitie, / Of what loines and what lignage I did spring[…].”
- A private matter, a secret.
- The genitals.“Having ended the delights of nature, they were wont to wipe their privities [translating catze] with perfumed wooll.”
- A relationship between parties seen as being a result of their mutual interest or participation in a given transaction, e.g. contract, estate, etc.“There is no privity, (as the lawyers say),—that is, no mutual recognition, consent and agreement—between those who take these oaths, and any other persons.”
- The fact of being privy to something; knowledge, compliance.“But this acknowledgement was made without the privity of his wife, whose vicious aversion he was obliged, in appearance, to adopt.”