Etymologically
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safety

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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

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)