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PRIVATE: The American Sign Language (ASL) sign for "private"
Can also mean things such as secret, anonymous, and confidential.

 

The location and handshape of the sign 'private' when produced with different movements and non-manual markers (facial expressions) can mean "SUFFER" or "PATIENCE"

 

PRIVATE:


The word "anonymous" can be expressed in ASL by signing NAME + PRIVATE:

 


One way to express the concept of a 'private eye' is to sign "INVESTIGATE:"

 


Sample sentence: That's personal! / That's private!:


The concept of "PASSWORD" can be signed as "PRIVATE" or "PRIVATE + WORD"

 

PASSWORD ("private" + "word"):


 




A student asked, asked:
"Wondering about signing "public school" as "hearing school", rather than "general/public" (vs "private" school). So, what would be the sign for private school and how would you describe or interpret the difference b/t public and private (not meaning residential, but parochial or non-religious private school).

Response:
We generally just use the sign typically glossed as SECRET to mean "private." That applies to schools as well (keeping in mind that any mouth movement or mouth morpheme would match "private" rather than "secret").
In the U.S. Deaf Community if I were signing regarding a public school I would still use the sign that is often glossed as HEARING to mean "public" -- with the understanding that many signs have multiple meanings and that in context the sign glossed as HEARING (which can mean "culturally Hearing") can also mean "public" when collocated with the word "school."

 

 


Question: What if it is a private Christian school vs a private charter school?  Would sign that before the sign for private?

Response: 
You could just sign:
PRIVATE CHRIST SCHOOL
PRIVATE CHARTER-(fs) SCHOOL




See: SECRET at YouTube: https://youtu.be/ELNOdcy_1fE

Notes: 

Also see: SECRET

Also see: PATIENCE

Also see: SUFFER




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