"Sub rosa" (sub ROH-zuh) – Latin for "under the rose" – means secret or private. The phrase comes from an ancient legend associating roses with confidentiality.
Example (as used by Stephen Metcalf in the New York Observer): "The atmosphere of gloom and dislocation only thickened, though, and Marty found himself in over his head in a world of shadowy fixers, sub-rosa deputies of the CIA and the mob."
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