"office or official position of a secretary" in the administrative and executive sense, 1811, from French secrétariat, from Medieval Latin secretariatus "the office of a secretary," from secretarius "clerk, notary, confidential officer, confidant" (see secretary). Meaning "division of the Central Committee of the USSR" (with capital S-) is from 1926, from Russian sekretariat.
Old English Africanas (plural) "native or inhabitant of Africa," from Latin Africanus (adj.) "of Africa, African," from Africa (see Africa). Used of white residents of Africa from 1815. Used of black residents of the U.S. from 18c., when it especially meant "one brought from Africa" and sometimes was contrasted to native-born Negro. As an adjective by 1560s, "pertaining to Africa or Africans" (Old English had Africanisc); from 1722 as "of or pertaining to black Americans."
South Korean capital, from Korean soul, literally "capital." It was the national capital from 1392 until Japanese annexation in 1910.
Chinese capital, from bei "north" + jing "capital" (as opposed to Nanking, literally "southern capital").
by 1630s as "human being, descendant of Adam" the Biblical first man, from Adam + -ite (1). The term was used from 1620s in reference to Christian perfectionist sects or groups that practice nudism (or, as a 1657 poem has it, "Cast off their petticoats and breeches"), recalling the state of Adam before the Fall. They existed in 2c. North Africa, 14c.-15c. central Europe, and 1840s America. Related: Adamic; Adamitic; Adamitism.
city in China, literally "southern capital," from Chinese nan "south" + jing "capital."
"the Germanic language of South Africa, the Dutch language as spoken in South Africa," 1892, from Dutch Afrikaansch "Africanish" (see Afrikander). Also known as South African Dutch.
