Warrantying

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The practice of offering a guarantee that a product will perform as promised
2. The act of assuring that a product will meet certain standards and offering a promise of repair or replacement if it fails
3. The process of backing a product with a promise to fix or replace it under specified conditions

Etymology: The verb "warrantying" is simply the present participle of "warrant" in its "warranty" sense of promising a product will perform or be of acceptable quality. Its roots run back to a Germanic word meaning something like "to protect" or "to take care of," which passed into Frankish and then into Old French as "guarantir," meaning to protect or to ensure. Old French then produced "guarantie," the noun for a pledge or assurance, and its variant spelling in Anglo-Norman was "warrantie." That Anglo-Norman variant was borrowed into Middle English as "warantye" or "warantie," and English eventually shifted the meaning from a general pledge toward the specific promise attached to goods. The word is a doublet of "guarantee" and "guaranty," which came into English through the same French source but kept the French spelling, while "warranty" kept the Anglo-Norman form.

Synonyms: guaranteeing, ensuring, affirming, vouching, assuring