VOUCHSAFE

[Dr. Goodword]

• vouchsafe •

Pronunciation: væwch-sayf • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Verb, transitive

Meaning: To deign, to grant or agree to either graciously or condescendingly.

Notes: Today's Good Word, despite all the borrowing it is based on, is treated as a solidly English word. However, it does come with a process noun, vouchsafement, which you may use at your own risk. The word sounds so English, the French suffix makes this derivation seem rather odd. But then some of its English forms sound a bit odd, too: vouchsafes, vouchsafed, vouchsafing.

In Play: The implication of today's word is that a vouchsafement comes from an authority of some kind: "Mahatma Handh was vouchsafed passage through Bulgaria on condition that he not stop for more than an hour." However, it is used more and more today to indicate gracious rather than condescending granting: "Henrietta was vouchsafed a corner office for her years of service as the company snool.

Word History: Today's Good Word began its journey as a Middle English phrase, vouchen sauf "to warrant as safe", made up of vouchen, which eventually lost the suffix -en + sauf, the French word for "safe". Vouch was the French descendant of Latin vocare "to call", which also provided English vocation, vocal, and voice. Safe is the English version of French sauf, an inheritance from Latin salvus "healthy, whole, intact". This stem is visible in English borrowings such as salvation, salvage, salvo and salute. Words like vouch, voice and vocal, and safe and salvo are eminent examples of how English creates several words from one by borrowing the same word at different stages of its development. (We, of course, graciously vouchsafe our gratitude to Martin Starr, professor emeritus of Columbia University, for his suggestion of today's eminently Good Word.)

[Perry]

To deign, to grant or agree to either graciously or condescendingly.

Which can make it a problem to know in which manner the vouchsafement was granted. Perhaps vouchsafe is condenscnding, and vouch is not?

[sluggo]

vouchen, which eventually lost the suffix -en + sauf, the French word for "safe". ...Safe is the English version of French sauf, an inheritance from Latin salvus "healthy, whole, intact". This stem is visible in English borrowings such as salvation, salvage, salvo and salute...

OK Doc, now I am confused.
Sauf, at least in modern French, is really used to mean 'except'. While I can see a twisted relationship with 'complete', I'm lost on how the French meaning of 'safe' is in play.

I believe English 'safe' would be rendered sûr or en sécurité depending on context, though safe may be a literal ancestor with abstract function ("safe" as in 'safe from contamination'?).

Certainly a baserunner who is 'with out' is not called safe...

[Cacasenno]

sauf
prep. save, except; but, excluding, unless; beyond, apart from, barring

adj. unharmed, intact, undamaged; safe, secure, protected
(Babylon)

Also in Italian we have salvo with the double meaning 'exept' and 'safe'.

Salvo Mario e Luigi, tutti gli altri sono inutili=
'Saving Mario and Luigi, all others are useless'

(That's how I got out of a soccer team and started with sailing)

[Dr. Goodword]

Hmmm. I probably should have said "Middle French". Sauf does preserve its original meaning in crystalized phrases like sain et sauf and sauf-conduit. The interesting thing, though, is that it is used very modernly in sports: Le coureur était sauf sur la première base "The runner is safe at first base". So, I'm not entirely wrong and the sense of "safe" must be tucked away somewhere in the French mind.

[sluggo]

Quite correct about le beisbol, Doc. Cacasenno saved the day with his note about save the verb (as we use it archaically); that connects the dots pour moi. Hadn't thought of that.

There are unlimited convoluted paths to these things as we know, and French can be quite the lexicographical museum. Merci!