surety means certainty. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 72 out of 100.
surety is pronounced /ˈʃɔːɹɪti/.
Why “surety” is a great word
A person or entity providing a formal promise or guarantee, accepting primary liability for another's debt or failure. From Middle English surete (early 1300s), from Anglo-Norman seurté/Old French seurté ("a promise, pledge, guarantee"), from Latin sēcūritās ("security, freedom from care"). Unlike "security" (the broader thing pledged) or "guarantor" (which can imply a secondary liability), a surety is the binding handshake, the name on the line, the one who stands in the debtor's shadow. It is the cosigned lease, the bail bond posted at midnight, the third chair drawn up to a table for two—the quiet, weighty assumption that someone will be there to answer when the call comes due.
Etymology
From Middle English surete, attested since the early 1300s in the sense "guarantee, promise, pledge, assurance", from Anglo-Norman seurté/Old French seurté with the same meaning (whence modern French sûreté), from Latin sēcūritās. Equivalent to sure + -ty. The senses "security, safety, stability" and "certainty" are attested since the late 1300s. "One who undertakes to pay if another does not" is from the early 1400s. Doublet of security.
noun
- Certainty.“Know of a surety, that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs.”
- That which makes sure; that which confirms; ground of confidence or security.“[We] our happy state
Hold, as you yours, while our obedience holds;
On other surety none.”
- A promise to pay a sum of money in the event that another person fails to fulfill an obligation.“There remains unpaid
A hundred thousand more; in surety of the which
One part of Aquitaine is bound to us.”
- One who undertakes to pay money or perform other acts in the event that his principal fails therein.“He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it.”
- A substitute; a hostage.“...It happen’d on a solemn eventide,
Soon after He that was our surety died,
Two bosom friends, each pensively inclined,
The scene of all those sorrows left behind,
Sought their own village, busied as they went
In musings worthy of the great event:
They spake of Him they loved, of Him whose life,
Though blameless, had incurr’d perpetual strife,
Whose deeds had left, in spite of hostile arts,
A dee”
- Evidence; confirmation; warrant.“She called the saints to surety,
That she would never put it from her finger,
Unless she gave it to yourself.”