The Obscure Word: Steganographic

This series is about obscure words. But it's not about highly technical words from specialized fields, it's about words that I read in general fiction or nonfiction books; words that are interesting and that might even be usable.

Today's word is steganographic.

What does 'steganographic' mean?

According to dictionary.com, steganographic is an adjective meaning " pertaining to a secret message within an ordinary message ".

Why should you use this word?

Steganographic is so precise. "Coded" or "enciphered" covers all sorts of codes, but steganographic has an exact meaning, and it's not exactly a code.

What is the origin of the word "steganographic"?

Steganographic isn't in the Online Etymology Dictionary, but dictionary.com gives its etymology as a compound of two Greek words: Steganos (covered) and graphic (writing).

How is "steganographic" used?

Wordnik has some examples, including one by the Washington Post "According to the FBI's complaint against nine of the defendants, investigators recovered more than 100 text files that had been embedded in steganographic images and exchanged between the Murphys and their alleged controllers in the Moscow headquarters of a Russian intelligence agency." Another use is "Posting pictures to the web has the advantage of making it hard to determine who the message is aimed at: many people might visit the site holding the steganographic pictures, but only the fellow spy would know they contain a hidden message" which comes from New Scientist. I first read about steganography in Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, in which an Armenian family uses steganography to send secret messages to other members.

Sources: www.dictionary.com

http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=steganographic

Wordnik http://www.wordnik.com/words/steganographic/examples