secret de Polichinelle

French

Alternative forms

  • secret de polichinelle

Etymology

Literally, “secret of Polichinelle”, from a play of the same name by Pierre Wolff (1903), about a bourgeois family trying to conceal the “open secret” that their married son has a child born out of wedlock.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /sə.kʁɛ d(ə) pɔ.li.ʃi.nɛl/

Noun

secret de Polichinelle m (plural secrets de Polichinelle)

  1. open secret, secret of Polichinelle
    • 2005 September 19, Stéphanie Esposito, “Des candidats se préparent, d'autres s'annoncent”, in La Provence, →ISSN, page 9:
      A six mois du scrutin municipal demeurent quelques secrets de Polichinelle dans la capitale comtadine.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
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