Insureableness

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. The quality or condition of being capable of being covered by an insurance policy against loss or damage
2. The state of something being suitable for insurance, meaning it can be protected by a contract that pays out for losses
3. Eligibility for coverage under an insurance arrangement, the degree to which a person or property can be insured

Etymology: "Insureableness" is a straightforward formation: the adjective "insurable" (able to be insured) with the suffix "-ness" added to turn the quality into a noun. "Insurable" itself is built from "insure" plus the suffix "-able", meaning "capable of being." "Insure" comes from the Middle English "ensuren", a variant of "ensure", which meant "to make certain" or "to secure." The two verbs, "ensure" and "insure", were used interchangeably for centuries, and only in the 18th and 19th centuries did "insure" narrow to its financial sense of guaranteeing payment against loss. The noun "insureableness" is rare, found mainly in technical and legal writing about whether a person, property, or risk can be covered by a policy. Its meaning is the state of qualifying for insurance. Because English readily attaches "-ness" to adjectives ending in "-able", the form was available to writers whenever the concept needed naming, and it appears in the language's dictionaries without any memorable coining story behind it.