ensure

Pronunciation

• IPA: UK /ɪnˈʃɔː/, US /enˈʃʊr/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English ensuren,^[2] borrowed from Anglo-Norman enseurer,^[3][4][5] formed from en- (“make”) and Old French seür “sure”,^[3][4] probably influenced by Old French aseürer “to assure”;^[3][4] Hoad, the New Oxford and Merriam-Webster treat it as an alteration of aseurer.^[5][6][2] It is related to sure, assure and insure.^[3][5]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Middle English it meant “to exact a pledge” (before 1376, in Piers Plowman) and “to give assurance, promise on oath” (about 1380, in Chaucer).^[4] The OED's first record is about 1385, “to tell a person confidently”.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The early senses were “to convince” and “to make safe”.^[6][8] From about 1450 it also meant to engage by a promise of marriage, to betroth,^[7] an old use that Trench noticed in Cheke's translation of Matthew (“Mary was ensured to Joseph”).^[9] Barnhart dates “to make sure or certain, guarantee” to 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum,^[4] but the OED's record of the main modern sense, to make an event or result certain, begins in 1742.^[7] The commercial sense “to insure” a life or property (1693) is obsolete, and the work passed to insure.^[7][5] Johnson defined it as “to ascertain; to make certain; to secure”.^[10]

Timeline

• before 1376 – to exact a pledge.^[4]
• c. 1385 – to assure a person.^[7]
• 1440 – to guarantee.^[4]
• c. 1450 – to betroth.^[7]
• 1693 – to insure (obsolete).^[7]
• 1742 – to make an outcome certain.^[7]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To make sure or certain; to guarantee.
2. To make safe; to secure.

Word family

• ensurer

Related words

• insure
• assure
• sure
• secure

Usage notes

Ensure, insure and assure are interchangeable in many uses, but assure alone is used of setting a person's mind at rest, and many writers keep insure for guaranteeing against loss.^[11][12]

References

1. ^ Jones, Daniel (2011), Cambridge English Pronouncing Dictionary, 18th ed., ed. Peter Roach, Jane Setter and John Esling, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
3. ^ a b c d Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
5. ^ a b c d Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ Trench, Richard Chenevix (1859), A Select Glossary of English Words Used Formerly in Senses Different from Their Present, London: John W. Parker
10. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
11. ^ Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
12. ^ The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (1992), 3rd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin