Stealths

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The practice of executing actions in a quiet and inconspicuous way to remain undetected
2. The characteristic of avoiding attention and being hidden while carrying out activities, especially in strategic contexts
3. The acts of operating quietly and secretly to avoid being noticed

Etymology: "Stealths" is the plural of "stealth", so the answer is about the noun itself: a word for secret, quiet action that has been around in English since Middle English, descended from the same root that gives us "steal". The noun traces back to Old English "stǣlþ", meaning theft or stealth, which itself grew out of the Proto-Germanic verb "stelaną", meaning to steal or to sneak. The suffix "-th" was added to that verb to turn the action into an abstract noun, so "stealth" is literally the quality of stealing, or of moving without being seen. That history is why the word still carries a whiff of wrongdoing even when used innocently. Its close relatives in other Germanic languages, such as Old High German "stāla" for theft and modern German "Diebstahl", show the same pattern: a word for the act of taking something covertly became a word for covert conduct in general.

Synonyms: secrecy, furtiveness

Antonyms: openness, visibility