Why do Americans use Secretary over Minister?

[poiuytrewq0987]

I always found it interesting how Americans used secretary in lieu of minister. Why the change?

[Beorn]

British MPs are usually homosexual, so calling your bitch a minister sounds more macho.
Americans tend to just stick it in any hole that is warm and inviting (prime example the Kennedys) or not entirely inviting (again, prime example the Kennedys).

Who would you rather have Wiki say you fucked?

[Svipdag]

Because, to most 18th and early 19th Americans, "Minister" implied a minister of the Gospel.



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[Great Dane]

Maybe it is just to be different from the English. Like we drive on the right while England drives on the left. Canada had to drive on the right also for obvious geographic reasons.

[Oreka Bailoak]

I like to think because we run our executive branch like a business. We use a lot of business terms.

Actually after looking at the terms in the executive branch I think this is the case...
Senior advisor,
counselor
director
chair
representative
president
vice president
secretary
^All of which are found in business.

Shows the capitalist roots.

[Odoacer]

I'm not sure the reason; Svipdag may well be correct, but I'm sure Oreka Bailoak is wrong about the business angle. "Secretary" in this sense is also a slightly older usage:

secretary
late 14c., "person entrusted with secrets," from M.L. secretarius "clerk, notary, confidential officer, confidant," from L. secretum "a secret" (see secret). Meaning "person who keeps records, write letters, etc.," originally for a king, first recorded c.1400. As title of ministers presiding over executive departments of state, it is from 1590s. The word also is used in both French and English to mean "a private desk," sometimes in French form secretaire (1818).

minister
c.1300, "one who acts upon the authority of another," from O.Fr. ministre "servant," from L. minister (gen. ministri) "servant, priest's assistant" (in M.L. "priest"), from minus, minor "less," hence "subordinate," + comp. suffix *-teros. Meaning "priest" is attested in Eng. from early 14c. Political sense of "high officer of the state" is attested from 1620s, from notion of "service to the crown." The verb is from c.1300, originally "to serve (food or drink)."

But even the U.K. has two "secretaries," the Foreign Secretary (analogous to U.S. Secretary of State) and the Home Secretary (analogous to U.S. Secretary of the Interior).

[Rachel]

I always thought Secretary was a bit lame, i perfer minister, though what i perfer and what the government likes are two different things.

[Great Dane]

I thought the Home Secretary in the United Kingdom was similar to the Attorney General in the United States?

[The Lawspeaker]

I thought the Home Secretary in the United Kingdom was similar to the Attorney General in the United States?

The Secretary of State for the Home Department, commonly known as the Home Secretary, is the minister in charge of the Home Office of the United Kingdom, and one of the country's four Great Offices of State.

So basically the Home Secretary is the Minister of Internal Affairs.

[Great Dane]

Would that include law enforcement?