Word of the Day

: October 28, 2010

incognito

adverb or adjective in-kahg-NEE-toh

What It Means

: with one's identity concealed

incognito in Context

The food critic made an incognito visit to the restaurant.

"[Mary, Queen of Scots] loved St. Andrews, where she kept a small vacation cottage and often stayed incognito, doing her own shopping and cooking, and playing golf along the links by the Firth of Forth." -- From an article by Sally Jenkins in The Washington Post, July 15, 2010

Did You Know?

The ancient Greeks and Romans knew that there were times when you didn't want to be recognized. For example, a myth tells how Zeus and Hermes visited a village incognito and asked for lodging. The apparently penniless travelers were turned away from every household except that of a poor elderly couple named Baucis and Philemon, who provided a room and a feast despite their own poverty. The Romans had a word that described someone or something unknown (like the gods in the tale): "incognitus," a term that is the ancestor of our modern "incognito."

Test Your Memory: What is the meaning of "tendentious," our featured word from October 9, 2010? The answer is ...