priv·y / ˈprivē/ • adj. (privy to) sharing in the knowledge of (something secret or private): he was no longer privy to her innermost thoughts. ∎ archaic hidden; secret: a privy place.• n. (pl. priv·ies) 1. a toilet located in a small shed outside a house or other building; outhouse.2. Law a person having a part or interest in any action, matter, or thing.DERIVATIVES: priv·i·ly / ˈprivəlē/ adv.

privy originally (in Middle English) = ‘private’.
Privy Council a body of advisers appointed by a sovereign or a Governor General (now chiefly on an honorary basis and including present and former government ministers).

In historical use, the term can also denote a sovereign's or Governor General's private counsellors.
privy seal in the UK, a seal affixed to documents that are afterwards to pass the Great Seal or that do not require it. Recorded from Middle English, the name means ‘private seal’.

PRIVY

One who has a direct, successive relationship to another individual; a coparticipant; one who has an interest in a matter; private.

Privy refers to a person in privity with another—that is, someone involved in a particular transaction that results in a union, connection, or direct relationship with another. Privies in blood are the heirs of an ancestor. Privies in estate are people who succeed or receive an assignment of property, such as a grantor and a grantee, lessor and lessee, or assignor and assignee.