Added 9 October 2026
reticence
/ˈɹɛtɪs(ə)ns/ noun
Latin root: reticentia Wiktionary
noun Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about reticence at Wordnik → Where our words come from →
- The trait of being uncommunicative; not volunteering anything more than necessary.
Origin
The noun is borrowed from Middle French réticence (“act of keeping silent, silence; reserve; aposiopesis”) (modern French réticence (“tight-lippedness, reticence”)), or derived from its etymon Latin reticentia (“act of keeping silent, silence; aposiopesis”), from reticēns (“keeping silent, reticent, silent; keeping secret, concealing”) + -ia (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns). Reticēns is the present active participle of reticeō (“to keep silent; to keep secret, conceal”), from re- (prefix meaning ‘again’) + taceō (“to be silent, keep quiet”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tak- or *tHk-).
From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)