Hiya Villaverde le Magnifico!
I am very pleased to get a follow-up to the tricky question I raised only two days ago.
If I catch what you mean, secure -as an adjective- would be more or less a synonym of insured. Secure should rather be related to a mean insuring or guaranteeing the safety.
I would first make out "secure" from "secured" which points out a guarantee (ex. a loan may be secured/guaranteed by somebody's endorsement.)
Secure, according to my dictionary, comes from [se-cura, without care]. The meanings listed by the Webster's are
1a. confident, easy in mind (no need to take care of)
1b. assured in expectation, having no doubt.
2a free from danger
2b free from risk of loss
2c affording safety (a secure hideaway, a secure retreat)
3 assured, certain (a secure victory)
Safe, according to the same book, comes from [salvus, safe, healthy]. Meanings as listed by the same dictionary:
1 freed from harm, unhurt.
2 secure from thread of danger
3 affording safety from danger
4 healthy, sound
5 harmless
6 unlikely to produce controversy
7 not liabole to take risks, cautious; trustworthy, reliable
And the Webster's adds something this way:
SAFE and SECURE are synonyms as long as they share the meaning element "free from danger or risk".
Hence I am to agree with you as far as you let me know that words are not to be learned in dictionaries but in various contexts of writings and speechs.
What made me wonder about the words, it's that I read this quotation by Benjamin Franklin "He that's secure is not safe".
Now that I caught your say, I think I am a bit nearer to the thought. Thank you so much! A journalist might be secure thanks to provisions made by his governement, but that doesn't mean he is safe.
You know much more than you look it, don't you?
[CS] Mind the question tags.
It is hot, isn't it?
I think you know it, don't you. -> think is not an auxiliary verb, hence the question tag uses do.
I hope to reading you more often henceforth.
Enjoy the life, Villaverde!
Gee
[CW]
Who would be so kind as to tell me if it is possible to be secure without being safe?
Posts: 72
27 March 2009