"private reason" vs "personal reason"

Question

Someone turned down my invitation for visit to our university for some private reasons. I am not sure what he meant by that. The situation is like he used to work for a company and there might be a conflict of interest if he come to our university to give a talk. But I specifically said to him that this should not be a problem since he is now retired and also that the talk is a purely academic one. Therefore, if it is because of the conflict of interest, there is nothing so private and he could just tell me straightly.

So I think maybe he really meant "personal reasons"? I have found this post on the forum. But I still want to confirm that I am not understanding it in a wrong way.

Answer 1

From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, private has quite a few meanings.

One of those meanings is this:

not related to one's official position

It sounds like that's the way you're taking his meaning. However, private can often (probably more often than the above) mean this:

intended for or restricted to the use of a particular person, group, or class

With this meaning, when I call something private, it means I don't want other people to know about it. If there's a death in the family and I don't want other people talking about it, I might call that a "private reason" for not attending an event.

So it sounds like you're using the first meaning, when the person in question might be intending the second meaning.