Secretary of the Interior
8
6.1
- noun
- /ˈsɛkrəˌtɛri əv ði ɪnˈtɪriər/
- Formal
:
Secretario del Interior
- Albert Fall was the Secretary of the Interior under Warren G. Harding.
- letter to the Secretary of the Interior
Examples
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More than 100 participants attended the day-long briefing, including the Secretary of the Interior, the Chair of the House Natural Resources Committee, and numerous staffers.
Academic text (1997) -
Today, the Secretary of the Interior will give a speech about conservation efforts.
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You have to meet the Secretary of the Interior.
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We got to see the Secretary of the Interior.
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Secretary of the Interior did the right thing.
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Consequently, the Secretary of the Interior declined to list the fish as endangered or its habitat as critical.
Academic text (1995) -
For example, in 1995, Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbitt signed an agreement with Governor Roy Romer of Colorado.
Academic text (1997) -
The controversy was finally resolved when, on 28 April 2010, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar made the final decision in favor of the Cape Wind project.
Academic text (2011) -
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazer said today, and I quote: "The recovery of the gray wolf population "throughout significant portions of its historic range "is one of the great success stories "of the Endangered Species Act."
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Shortly after Ken Salazar became Obama's Secretary of the Interior, he reversed the Bush administration's last-minute awards of lucrative oil and gas drilling leases.
Academic text (2009)
Synonyms
7
5.1
A US government official who manages and protects federal lands and resources
Surface Forms
Morphology
secretary + of + the + Interior
The phrase follows a fully compositional pattern: 'secretary' (a senior official) + 'of the Interior' (the person in charge of the department named Interior), and the capitalized 'Interior' signals a department name. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words and the 'X of Y' head-of-department pattern will understand this refers to the government official heading that department, though they might not infer the department's exact portfolio (public lands) without extra knowledge.
Etymology
Secretary of the Interior mixes Secretary, a trusted official who kept records and helped run government business, with Interior, meaning the 'inside' of the country or its 'internal affairs'. So, the title names the government official who looks after public lands and natural resources.