Securing

How to spell securing

8 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce securing

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does securing mean?

1. verbProtecting something against loss, attack, or harm, or fastening it firmly in place.
2. verbSuccessfully obtaining or arranging something that was difficult to get.

Securing in a sentence

• Securing the building before nightfall was the guard's main task.

• She was responsible for securing funding for the new project.

• The engineer spent an hour securing the cables to the wall.

• Securing a mortgage took the couple several stressful months.

Where does securing come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is the present participle of 'secure', which English took from the Latin securus, an adjective meaning 'free from care' or 'untroubled'. That Latin word was assembled from se-, meaning 'apart from' or 'without', and cura, meaning 'care' or 'anxiety', so the literal idea was a mind unburdened by worry. By the time it entered English in the sixteenth century the sense had broadened from 'feeling safe' to 'making something safe', and from there to fastening things firmly and obtaining things reliably. The same cura root sits inside 'cure', 'curious', and 'curator', all of which involve careful attention. The spelling trap is the quiet middle: the unstressed 'cure' is pronounced 'kyoor', and writers must remember the -ing simply attaches to the full word 'secure', keeping the 'e' silent rather than dropping it.

How the word is built

• se- (apart, free from)
• cur (from cura: care, worry)
• -ing (present participle/gerund)