- security (n.)
- mid-15c., "condition of being secure," from Latin securitas, from securus (see secure). Meaning "freedom from care" is from 1550s; that of "something which secures" is from 1580s; "safety of a state, person, etc." is from 1941. Legal sense of "property in bonds" is from mid-15c.; that of "document held by a creditor" is from 1680s. Phrase security blanket in figurative sense is attested from 1966, in reference to the crib blanket carried by the character Linus in the "Peanuts" comic strip (1956).