Hi, Francis.
On 03/06/2015 15:55, Francis Dupont wrote:
<snip>
Regards
[email protected]
PS for native English speakers: is unsecure proper English? My speller
says insecure and unsecured are but not unsecure.
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In modern usage "insecure" is (pretty much) always used for something
that is not secure (e.g., The lock on that door is insecure.). Checking
back into the nearest thing we have to an authoritative source, the
(full) Oxford English Dictionary (OED) *does* have an entry for
"unsecure" but it is marked Obs(olete) and the small number of
quotations using it hark
back to the 19th century and earlier. So it isn't 'wrong' but it is
archaic.
<etymology nerd mode on>
The answer for American English may be different. (e.g.,
http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/19653/insecure-or-unsecure-when-dealing-with-security)
or it may just be jargon in things like financial systems.
Checking in my ancient paper dictionary (early 20th C), it has
"insecure" and "unsecured" as per your speller. However it caught my
eye (and tweaked my memory) that both "indiscipline" and "undiscipline"
*are* both used in modern English. There is possibly a very subtle
difference in meaning.
For etymological nerds, both my old dictionary and the OED give
"insecure" as a separate head word whereas there is a humungous entry
for "un-" as a prefix including "unsecured", "undiscipline" and a vast
number of other un's. To quote the Collin's dictionary:
un-^2
prefix
1.
denoting reversal of an action or state: uncover, untangle
2.
denoting removal from, release, or deprivation: unharness, unman, unthrone
3.
(intensifier): unloose
and from the Online Etymology Dictionary:
...
Freely and widely used since Old English in compounds with native and
imported words, it disputes with Latin-derived cognate in-
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/in->the right to form the
negation of certain words ( indigestable/undigestable, etc.). Often
euphemistic (e.g. untruth for "lie"). The most prolific of English
prefixes, it even is used to make words from phrases (e.g. uncalled-for,
c.1600; undreamed-of, 1630s; uncome-at-able, 1690s; unputdownable, 1947,
of a book; un-in-one-breath-utterable, Ben Jonson; etc., but not
restricted to un- ; cf. put-up-able-with, 1812). As a prefix in
telegram-ese to replace not
<http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/not>and save the cost of a word,
it is first attested 1936.
Yes.. the entry for Un- in my old dictionary runs to about 10 pages in
very small type.
So, the authors of the draft can probably claim that they have 'freely
used' unsecure as the negative of secure and you can't really complain.
Thinking about it, I wouldn't have any difficulty in using the verb "to
unsecure" (see meaning 2 above) meaning remove the means securing
something ("Take off the padlock" perhaps)... "unsecured" is the past
participle of this verb. BUT AFAIK there isn't a corresponding verb
"to insecure" in use - it just sounds wrong! What a daft language!
<etymology nerd mode off>
Well, you did ask...
/Elwyn
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