in petto en · ADJ
Etymology
Borrowed from Italian in petto (“in the chest”).
Meanings
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(not-comparable) Secret, private.
[…] it was not unfrequent for a good bargain to be struck with him by one or more of the public functionaries, the difference between the sum proposed and accepted being settled against the interests of Mynheer Krause, by the party putting him in possession of some government movement which hitherto been kept in petto.
1837, Capt. Marryat, “Snarleyyow; or, the Dog Fiend”, in The Metropolitan magazine, volume 18, page 18:The boudoir that would be yours is a blue room. Four Watteaus hang in it. In the dining-hall hang portraits of my forefathers—in petto, your forefathers-in-law—by many masters.
1911 October 26, Max Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, or, An Oxford Love Story, 1st American edition, New York, N.Y.: John Lane Company, published 1912, →OCLC:[…] in its nine members, stand prominently personified indolence and ignorance consummate, solemn pedantry and petulance in petto, upstart self-conceit and high-born arrogance all-blustering, self-sufficiency all smirking, and solid acres in all their stolidity, the remnant of vigour on crutches, and of saintly talent ever dozing—all this is indeed prophetic of wo to the land.
1838, “War in Disguise”, in Blackwood's Edinburgh magazine, volume 44, number 278, page 718:The City of the Sun was a model in petto for the whole earth.
1979, Frank Edward Manuel, Fritzie Prigohzy Manuel, Utopian Thought in the Western World, →ISBN, page 271:
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(not-comparable) Designated as a cardinal but not yet announced.
In future you will have the right to dress in red — indeed, you are already cardinal in petto, and you will be proclaimed at the next conclave.
1845, Eliakim Littell, Robert S. Littell, “Metternich”, in The Living Age:
Synonyms
Translations (5)
es en el pecho (secret, private) · it in pectore (secret, private) · nl in petto (secret, private) · fi salainen (secret, private) · nl onder de pet (secret, private)