Sicherheit

Forms

Sicherheit f (genitive Sicherheit, plural Sicherheiten)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle High German sicherheit, inherited from Old High German sihhurheit, formed from German sicher + -heit.^[2][3][1] The adjective, sihhur in the 9th century, was borrowed from Vulgar Latin *sicūrus, Latin sēcūrus (“without care, untroubled”), which is formed from sē- (“without”) and cūra (“care”).^[4][2][5] It was at first a legal word, “free of guilt and punishment, not liable”.^[4][2][3]

The same loan is Old Saxon sikor, Old Frisian sikur and Old English sicor, continued in Dutch zeker;^[2][5][4] Pfeifer asks whether it reached English before the Anglo-Saxons left the continent.^[2][5][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

Old High German sihhurheit is recorded in Otfrid's Gospel book (863–871), in glosses and in Notker, meaning “safety, rescue, freedom from care, self-assurance”.^[6][2]

Semantic evolution

Like the adjective, the noun was at first a legal word: in Middle High German a sicherheit was a pledge, a surety or a solemn promise, especially the parole a defeated knight gave his victor, as in Wolfram's Parzival and Hartmann's Iwein.^[7][2] Middle High German also had “freedom from care, protection, certainty”.^[2] The old legal sense lives on in “collateral, security for a loan”.^[8][9]

From the 17th century the adjective sicher increasingly meant “practised, skilled”, and the noun today also means sureness and poise.^[2][8] In politics die innere Sicherheit is the protection of the state and its citizens against terrorism, revolt and violent crime, and die äußere Sicherheit their protection against external enemies.^[8] The verb versichern took the sense “to insure” in the 17th century, first in shipping and sea trade.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 863–871 – Otfrid uses Old High German sihhurheit.^[6]
• 17th century – sicher increasingly means “practised, skilled”.^[2]
• 17th century – versichern comes to mean “to insure”, first in sea trade.^[2][3]

Meanings

Noun

1. safety, security: the state of being protected from danger or harm.^[8][1]
2. certainty.^[8][1]
3. Reliability, freedom from error: die Sicherheit der Messung.^[8]
4. Sureness, assurance, poise.^[8]
5. (finance) collateral, a surety for a loan.^[1][9]

Word family

• sicherheitshalber
• Sicherheitsnadel

Related words

• sicher
• sichern
• Sicherung
• versichern

Usage notes

Sich in Sicherheit wiegen is to believe wrongly that there is no danger, and etwas in Sicherheit bringen is to move it out of danger.^[8]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Pfeifer, Wolfgang, et al. (1993), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Deutschen, 2nd ed., Berlin: Akademie-Verlag; digital revised version in the DWDS, dwds.de
3. ^ a b c d Duden. Das Herkunftswörterbuch: Etymologie der deutschen Sprache (2007), 4th ed., Duden vol. 7, Mannheim: Dudenverlag
4. ^ a b c d Kluge, Friedrich; Seebold, Elmar (2011), Etymologisches Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache, 25th ed., Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter, p. 847
5. ^ a b c Lloyd, Albert L.; Springer, Otto; Lühr, Rosemarie, et al. (1988–), Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Althochdeutschen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht; online ewa.saw-leipzig.de, p. 7, 1204
6. ^ a b Köbler, Gerhard (2014), Althochdeutsches Wörterbuch, 6th ed., online, koeblergerhard.de/wikiling
7. ^ Grimm, Jacob; Grimm, Wilhelm (1854–1961), Deutsches Wörterbuch, 16 vols. in 32, Leipzig: Hirzel; digital: Wörterbuchnetz, Trier Center for Digital Humanities, p. 16, 724
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Duden. Das große Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache in zehn Bänden (1999), 3rd ed., Mannheim: Dudenverlag
9. ^ a b Wiktionary, das freie Wörterbuch (German Wiktionary), de.wiktionary.org