Trend Watch

Surreptitious

The word was widely used to describe the video of ...

When:

Lookups spiked on September 18, 2012.

Why:

In the main campaign story of the week, surreptitious was widely used to describe the video of Mitt Romney speaking to wealthy supporters at a fundraising dinner and discussing low-income voters.

The video was apparently taken without the knowledge of the candidate or others at the event.

Surreptitious means "done, made, or acquired by stealth," or "clandestine." It comes from the Latin verb that means "to snatch secretly."


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