Unsafe

How to spell unsafe

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce unsafe

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does unsafe mean?

1. adjectiveNot safe; involving danger or risk of harm.

Unsafe in a sentence

• The inspector declared the old wiring unsafe and ordered repairs.

• Driving on bald tyres in heavy rain is genuinely unsafe.

Where does unsafe come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This is a transparent compound built from the negative prefix un-, which comes straight from Old English and means simply 'not', and the adjective 'safe'. 'Safe' itself entered English in the 1200s through Old French 'sauf', which descended from the Latin 'salvus', meaning 'uninjured', 'healthy', or 'whole'; the same Latin root survives in words like 'salvage', 'salutary', and 'salvation'. The prefixed form 'unsafe' is recorded from the late 1500s, when English writers freely attached un- to adjectives to express the simple opposite. The spelling is reassuringly regular: the prefix and the base word are written solid, with no doubling and no dropped letters, so the only thing to remember is that there is no hyphen.

How the word is built

• un- (not)
• safe (free from danger, from Latin salvus 'uninjured')