| 词组 | ensure, insure, assure |
| 释义 | ensure, insure, assure Quite a few commentators insist on distinctions between these words, but Bernstein 1977 says there are none, flatly contradicting Einstein 1985 who says that each means something different. Usage agrees better with Bernstein. Here is what the synonymy paragraph in Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary says: Ensure, insure, and assure are interchangeable in many contexts where they indicate the making certain or inevitable of an outcome, but insure sometimes stresses the taking of necessary measures beforehand, and assure distinctively implies the removal of doubt and suspense from a person's mind. And here are three typical examples: • ... but the state has blocked the sale until Witco assures that any pollution on the property will be cleaned up —Barry Meier, Wall Street Jour., 7 Aug. 1985 • ... claims that his system will ensure uniformity in pronunciation —Baron 1982 • ... held that school officials had the right to insure that a high-school assembly proceed in an orderly manner—William Safire, N.Y. Times, 24 Aug. 1986 A few commentators, such as Trimble 1975 and Sellers 1975, suggest assure for people, ensure for things, and insure for money and guarantees (insurance). These are nice distinctions, and you can follow them if you want to. Assure is almost always used of people, in fact: • But I am writing to assure you no jury would convict if you wanted to join me in murdering Eddy Duchin —Alexander Woollcott, letter, 22 Feb. 1933 The rest of the recommendation rests on using ensure for general senses and reserving insure for financial senses. This distinction has been urged at least since Fowler 1926, especially by British commentators. It is in general true that insure is used for the financial uses (it must vex the British commentators to find assure still occasionally used in this sense by British technical writers). However, both insure and ensure are used in general senses: • A solicitor is a man whose profession ensures that whenever you telephone him, he is in court —Alan Brien, Punch, 11 Sept. 1974 • ... so simple a thing as ensure that all third-grade teachers will be expert in spelling —Mitchell 1979 • ... would insure against any awkward second marriage —Mollie Hardwick, Emma, Lady Hamilton, 1969 • ... his sudden fame probably insured a backlash — Calvin Tomkins, New Yorker, 6 Dec. 1982 Our most recent evidence shows that the distinction between ensure and insure is made more often in British written English than in American written English,and a few commentators hold that insure is more common than ensure in American English. |
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