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🗣️ Not direct 🛍️ Used goods 👂 Indirectly
secondhand

secondhand

23 4.0
Learned from someone else rather than from the original source
  • adjective
  • /ˈsɛkəndˌhænd/
: de oídas
  • She often dismisses secondhand accounts as unreliable compared to firsthand experiences.
  • secondhand account
  • secondhand information
  • secondhand smoke

Oh my Lord, the secondhand embarrassment.

Examples

  • This is all secondhand information.

    The Frozen Ground (2013)

  • Thus, knowledge of people and events was secondhand and rudimentary at best.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Most had only secondhand knowledge, but a few women wrote of seeing for themselves.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Besides which, whatever he says will be secondhand.

    Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil (1997)

  • I don't pay much attention to what I hear secondhand.

    Mad Dog Time (1996)

  • Some even relied on secondhand versions, such as narratives of an intimate friend.

    Academic text (1996)

  • Together, Dr. Heffernan and O'Neill will study the effects of secondhand smoke and the brain.

    Blog text (31)

  • Health experts have not publicized the fact that numerous children grow up inhaling secondhand smoke.

    Academic text (1992)

  • Foremost, sailors have been left exposed to secondhand smoke while deployed, compromising their safety and health.

    Academic text (2011)

  • I prefer to get my news from direct sources rather than relying on secondhand reports.

Synonyms

second hand
vssecondhand
14 3.3

Information received through another person rather than directly

is written as a single word rather than two separate words
hearsay
vssecondhand
  • Specialized
10 7.7

Information from other people rather than from direct experience

is the general term for similar information without legal weight

Antonyms

primary
691 2.5

Being most important or basic

Compounds

secondhand car
1 1.6

A car that someone else owned before

secondhand furniture
1 1.8

Pieces of furniture that someone else used before you buy them

How Direct

direct
799 1.0
eyewitness
221 3.2
reported
  • Formal
136 3.0
secondhand
23 4.0
hearsay
  • Specialized
10 7.7
to rumor
  • US
76 3.9

Surface Forms

secondhand positive

Morphology

secondhand = second + hand (transparent) = second + hand

Meaning is directly derived from 'second' (not first/direct) + 'hand' (from another's hand), indicating an indirect source.

Etymology

Secondhand comes from the parts second and hand, with first-hand meaning 'direct' or 'from the person involved', so secondhand means 'heard from someone else'. So, secondhand information is not direct and comes through another person.