Uninsured

How to spell uninsured

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce uninsured

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does uninsured mean?

1. adjectiveNot covered by insurance against loss, damage, or harm.

Uninsured in a sentence

• The driver who hit her car was completely uninsured, so she had to claim from her own policy.

• Many small businesses operate while uninsured against fire and flood damage.

Where does uninsured come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word is built on 'insure', which English took from the Old French verb enseurer, meaning 'to make safe', itself formed from the prefix en- and the adjective seur, 'sure' or 'secure'. The deeper root is the Latin securus, which literally meant 'free from care', combining se- (without) and cura (care, worry), so the original idea was being relieved of anxiety. By the 1600s 'insure' had narrowed to the financial sense of guaranteeing against loss in exchange for a premium. The negating prefix un-, an old native English element meaning simply 'not', was then added along with the past-participle ending -ed to describe someone or something lacking such cover. The spelling stays regular throughout, but writers sometimes wobble over the single 's' and the 'sured' ending, which echoes 'sure' rather than the Latin 'secur-'.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• insure (to make safe, from Latin securus: free from care)
• -ed (adjective suffix)