Other forms: securities
Security is being safe, and the feeling that comes with being safe. Job security, national security, a sense of security. It covers both the actual protection and the peace of mind it brings.
It is also the people and equipment doing the protecting — security stopped him at the door, airport security, a security camera. In finance it means something valuable promised against a loan, and securities in the plural are shares and bonds. That last sense is why the word turns up so often in business writing.
1nounsafetyBeing safe from danger, and the settled feeling that comes with it.~88%
“The job gave her a sense of security.”
2nounguardsThe people and systems that keep a place safe.~2%
“Security stopped him at the door.”
3nounsecurityProperty promised to a lender against a loan.~10%
“He put the house up as security.”
Shares are an estimate: a language model read 10 sentences found in the wild and placed 10 of them on a sense — a count of our sample, not a measurement of English.
Security is freedom from care. Latin sēcūrus breaks into sē, without, and cūra, care, so to be secure was to have nothing left to look after.
Latin
sēcūritās
Middle French
securité
Middle English
securite
English, today
security
Built from
From secure + ity, from Middle English securite, from Middle French securité (modern sécurité), from Latin sēcūritās, from Latin sēcūrus (“safe, secure”), from sē- + cūra; see cure. Similar to Latin sine cūrā (“without care, carefree”), which led to English sinecure. a doublet of surety.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA