Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SEC'RE-TA-RY, n. [Fr. secrétaire; Sp. and It. secretario; from L. secretus, secret; originally a confident, one intrusted with secrets.]

1. A person employed by a public body, by a company or by an individual, to write orders, letters, dispatchest public or private papers, records and the like. Thus legislative bodies have secretaries, whose business is to record all their laws and resolves. Embassadors have secretaries.
2. An officer whose business is to superintend and manage the affairs of a particular department of government; as, the secretary of state, who conducts the correspondence of a state with foreign courts; the secretary of the treasury, who manages the department of finance; the secretary of war, of the navy, &c.