Dictionaries :: Privily

King James Dictionary

Privily: Secretly.

Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away PRIVILY. (Matthew 1)

Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words

Privily:

"secretly, covertly" (from a root lath--, indicating "unnoticed, unknown," seen in lanthano, "to escape notice," lethe, "forgetfulness"), is translated "privily" in Mat 1:19; 2:7; Act 16:37; "secretly" in Jhn 11:28 (in some mss., Mar 5:33).
See SECRETLY.

Note: In Gal 2:4, pareisaktos, an adjective (akin to pareisago, lit., "to bring in beside," i.e., "secretly," from para, "by the side," eis, "into," ago, "to bring"), is used, "privily brought in," RV (AV, "unawares, etc."), i.e., as spies or traitors. Strabo, a Greek historian contemporary with Paul, uses the word of enemies introduced secretly into a city by traitors within. In the same verse the verb pareiserchomai (see COME, No. 8) is translated "came in privily," of the same Judaizers, brought in by the circumcision party to fulfill the design of establishing the ceremonial law, and thus to accomplish the overthrow of the faith; cp. in Jud 1:4 the verb pareisduo (or, duno), "to slip in secretly, steal in," RV, "crept in privily" (AV, "... unawares").
See CREEP, No. 2.