Insure vs. Ensure

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, my name is Doug. I’m in Tucson, Arizona.

Hey, Doug in Tucson. How are you doing?

I found the hill I’m willing to die upon.

What is that hill?

Oh, dear. It better be good.

Ensure versus ensure.

They’re spelled identical.

The first one begins with an I as in India,

And the second one begins with an E as in Echo,

So I-N-S-U-R-E or E-N-S-U-R-E.

Okay, Doug, you’ve got to tell us why you feel so strongly about these two words

And what you think they mean.

Okay, so first of all, I recognize clearly I could just look it up online

And find the answer myself, but I just wanted to talk to you guys

Because this is way more fun.

Yeah, absolutely.

We get that.

For sure.

So as far as what I think they mean, it’s easier to explain Ensure

Because Ensure means that you’re going to make certain that something is going to happen.

For instance, I am going to ensure that my dog goes for a walk this afternoon.

I’m not going to insure that she’s going to go for a walk this afternoon, i.e. I’m not going to pay a third-party company to monetarily make certain that that happens.

I don’t know how to define insure with an I very well, other than you pay somebody money and then they make certain if your house has something go through the roof, the roof gets repaired.

They help you cover financial risk.

Exactly.

I insured my house.

I insured my car.

So, Doug, what brought this to mind, all this insure versus insure stuff?

Oh, it’s been a pet peeve of mine for decades.

Oh, the number of emails and mostly emails, mostly things that people write in a casual manner.

I don’t write professionally.

You know, if I’m writing an email, yeah, it’s professional, but that’s not my job.

It’s just communication.

So it’s not a strong need to be super professional and literature and that kind of thing.

Written communication. I work with extremely intelligent people, but, you know, a lot of the

Guys that I work with, you know, they didn’t get college degrees in literature and all this,

And they constantly misuse insure and ensure, and it drives me absolutely bonkers.

Oh, dear, Doug. But wouldn’t you agree there’s a lot of overlap between those two? I mean,

You know, for hundreds of years, they were simply spelling variants. It wasn’t until about the 19th

Century that some self-appointed grammarians decided that we really must differentiate between

The two. But don’t you find yourself naturally using Ensure sometimes instead of Ensure for

Making sure something’s going to happen? No, but I think that’s because my mother was a

Self-appointed grammarian. She instilled in you all these things. She was the kind of woman

Who would tell me that I should never say the word often because the T is always silent.

Incorrect.

Oh, dear.

That’s another one.

Well, Doug, I hope that we can help you now that you’ve vented a little bit,

That you will not have to die on a hill,

And that you will be comfortable and put this peeve to rest

And move forward with your life and love your actual animal

Instead of your pretend peeve animal.

Right, your actual pet.

Yes, exactly.

She needs more walks.

Every time you want to peeve, take your dog for a walk.

Absolutely.

So just to clarify, because I genuinely do have the question.

So historically, the two were connected, and it was really only, you know, 100, 150, whatever years ago that somebody was like, no, we have to differentiate between the two?

Yeah.

Right.

Pretty much.

Right.

Yeah.

Oh.

Well, we can assure you that you don’t have to worry about this.

Here we go.

What’s the origin?

I mean, I love getting origins from Martha.

Well, what’s the origin?

Ensure?

Ensure?

Now you have me curious about us here.

Are they all related?

Right.

Well, they all have to do with making sure.

And, again, that’s what I mean.

There’s just so much overlap.

Doug, before we go, I just want to let you know that the sure and assure and insure and insure is related to the words like secure and security.

They all come ultimately from the Latin word meaning safe, securus.

Oh, okay.

Sort of like the company you always see, securita.

Exactly.

Oh.

So take care of yourself.

Be well.

Yeah.

Don’t die on a hill.

All right.

Bye-bye.

Thank you so much, Grandma.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

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