safety

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈseɪf.ti/^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English sauvete, also saufte and safte,^[2][3] borrowed from Old French sauvete (“safety, safeguard; salvation; security”) (earlier salvetet),^[2][4] or Anglo-French salveté, saufté,^[5] from Medieval Latin salvitās (“safety”),^[2][4][6] from Latin salvus (“uninjured, in good health, safe”),^[2][7] which is also the source of safe, save, salvage and salvation.^[8] Etymonline takes salvus back to Proto-Indo-European *sol- (“whole, well-kept”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The state of being safe, freedom from harm or danger: early 14th century;^[2] the OED's earliest sense, “salvation of the soul”, is from before 1300 and is now obsolete,^[9][4] and close custody or confinement is from 1338.^[9]

Semantic evolution

From the late 14th century safety also meant a means of safety, a safeguard.^[2][9] Johnson (1755) defined it simply as “freedom from danger”, with a quotation from Macbeth.^[10] In the 19th century the word came to name devices: the trigger-lock on a gun by 1881, perhaps short for safety-lock (1877).^[2] In North American football a safety was first a score against one's own team, by 1881, and then a defensive position, by 1908.^[2] Compounds multiplied: safety-valve from 1797 (figurative from 1818), safety-razor by 1877, safety-belt from 1840, first for window washers and firefighters, and safety-net by 1916, figurative by 1950.^[2] The proverb there is safety in numbers echoes the biblical Proverbs, and Jane Austen used the modern wording in Emma (1814).^[8] The verb, “to make safe, to secure against failure”, is originally American, from the 20th century.^[11][9][5]

Timeline

• before 1300 – salvation of the soul.^[9]
• early 14th century – freedom from harm or danger.^[2]
• 1338 – close custody.^[9]
• late 14th century – a safeguard.^[2][9]
• 1797 – safety-valve.^[2]
• 1814 – safety in numbers, in Jane Austen's Emma.^[8]
• 1881 – a gun's trigger-lock; a safety in football.^[2]
• 1927 – verb, to make safe.^[5][9]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. The condition of being safe from danger, risk or injury.
2. A device that prevents accidental operation, as a lock on a firearm.
3. (American football) A play in which the offense downs the ball behind its own goal line, scoring two points for the defense.
4. (American football) A defensive back who plays deepest, to guard against long passes and runs.

Verb

1. To make safe; to protect against failure or accident.

Word family

• biosafety
• supersafety
• unsafety
• safety curtain
• safety lock
• free safety
• safety belt
• margin of safety

Related words

• safe
• save
• salvage
• salvation
• salve

Usage notes

In west Somerset dialect a safety was a slow-burning fuse used in blasting.^[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 c d e f g h i j k l m n Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
4. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ a b c Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary (2003), 11th ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
7. ^ Klein, Ernest. A Comprehensive Etymological Dictionary of the English Language. 2 vols. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 1966–1967.
8. ^ a b c Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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
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. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
12. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)