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Origin and history of warranty

warranty(n.)

mid-14c., warantie, a legal term for various types of clauses in real estate transactions, from Anglo-French and Old North French warantie "protection, defense, safeguard" (Old French garantie), from warant (see warrant (n.)). Also sometimes as "authority, mandate, warrant" (early 15c.).

also from mid-14c.

Entries linking to warranty

warrant(n.)

c. 1200, warant, "protector, defender, one who guards" (a sense now obsolete), from Old North French warant "defender; surety, pledge; justifying evidence" (Old French garant), from Frankish *warand, from Proto-Germanic *war- "to warn, guard, protect" (source also of Old High German werento "guarantor," noun use of present participle of weren "to authorize, warrant;" German gewähren "to grant"). In Watkins this is reconstructed to be from PIE root *wer- (4) "to cover."

It was extended by c. 1300 to "security or assurance provided via a protector; sanction; permission from a superior which protects one from blame or responsibility." Also by c.1300 in reference to letters, etc., serving as validation of authority.

It is attested by 1590s as "justifying reason or grounds for action, belief, etc." From early 14c. in law, "guarantee of a title or right to possession of property." 

Also from early 14c. as "power by official license," and by early 15c. as "written legal document authorizing or commanding some action; a writ." A military warrant officer is one who holds office by warrant (as from a government department), rather than by commission (from a head of state).

gu-

because g- followed by some vowels in English usually has a "soft" pronunciation, a silent -u- sometimes was inserted between the g- and the vowel in Middle English to signal hardness, especially in words from French; but this was not done with many Scandinavian words where hard "g" precedes a vowel (gear, get, give, etc.). Germanic -w- generally became -gu- in words borrowed into Romance languages, but Old North French preserved the Frankish -w-, and English sometimes borrowed both forms, hence guarantee/warranty, guard/ward, etc.

*wer-(4)

Proto-Indo-European root meaning "to cover."

It might form all or part of: aperitif; apertive; aperture; barbican; cover; covert; curfew; discover; garage; garment; garnish; garret; garrison; guarantee; guaranty; kerchief; landwehr; operculum; overt; overture; pert; warn; warrant; warrantee; warranty; warren; wat; Wehrmacht; weir.

It might also be the source of: Sanskrit vatah "enclosure," vrnoti "covers, wraps, shuts;" Lithuanian užveriu, užverti "to shut, to close;" Old Persian *pari-varaka "protective;" Latin (op)erire "to cover," (ap)erire "open, uncover" (with ap- "off, away"); Old Church Slavonic vora "sealed, closed," vreti "shut;" Old Irish feronn "field," properly "enclosed land;" Old English wer "dam, fence, enclosure," German Wehr "defense, protection," Gothic warjan "to defend, protect."

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    guarantee
    1670s, "person that gives security," altered (perhaps via Spanish garante or confusion with legalese ending -ee), from earlier garrant "warrant that the title to a property is true" (early 15c.), from Old French garant "defender, protector; warranty; pledge; justifying evidence,"
    guaranty
    title to a property is true" (see guarantee (n.)), with influence from Old French garantie "protection, defense; safeguard, warranty...
    pledge
    mid-14c., plegge, "surety, bail," from Old French plege (Modern French pleige) "hostage, security, bail," also Anglo-Latin plegium, both probably from Frankish *plegan "to guarantee," from *pleg-, a West Germanic root meaning "have responsibility for" (source also of Old Saxon pl
    security
    early 15c., securite, "state or condition of being safe from danger or harm;" mid-15c., "freedom from care or anxiety" (a sense now archaic), from Old French securite and directly from Latin securitas "freedom from care," from securus "free from care" (see secure (adj.)). This fo
    assurance
    late 14c., "formal or solemn pledge, promise," also "certainty, full confidence," from Old French asseurance "assurance, promise; truce; certainty, safety, security" (11c., Modern French assurance), from asseurer "to reassure, to render sure" (see assure). The meaning "self-confi
    deposit
    1620s, "place in the hands of another as a pledge for a contract," from Latin depositus, past participle of deponere "lay aside, put down, deposit," also used of births and bets, from de "away" (see de-) + ponere "to put, place" (past participle positus; see position (n.)). From
    surety
    c. 1300, seurte, "a guarantee, promise, pledge or assurance," from Old French seurté "a promise, pledge, guarantee; assurance, confidence" (12c., Modern French sûreté), from Latin securitatem (nominative securitas) "freedom from care or danger, safety, security," from securus (se
    diversity
    mid-14c., diversite, "variety, diverseness;" late 14c., "quality of being diverse, fact of difference between two or more things or kinds; variety; separateness; that in which two or more things differ," mostly in a neutral sense, from Old French diversete "difference, diversity,
    compass
    c. 1300, "space, area, extent, circumference," from Old French compas "circle, radius; size, extent; pair of compasses" (12c.), from compasser "to go around, measure (with a compass); divide equally," from Vulgar Latin *compassare "to pace out," from Latin com "with, together" (s
    persuasion
    late 14c., persuasioun, "action of inducing (someone) to believe (something) by appeals to reason (not by authority, force, or fear); an argument to persuade, inducement," from Old French persuasion (14c.) and directly from Latin persuasionem (nominative persuasio) "a convincing,

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