Since when has the word warranted come to mean the object under warranty? As in, “this piece of equipment is warranted for one year”. This looks and sounds wrong to me. The word they are trying for is “Guarenteed”. This was on an American companies website, is this standard American English?
Or maybe they really mean warranted. I hope not, we need to use the piece of equipment for longer than one year.
FloChi
It’s probably a case of American-English. “Warranted” refers to a product warranty.
When we Americans buy certain products, we can put it under warranty. It’s synonymous with guarantee here in the States.
IMO, the word should be warrantied. “Warranted” usually means justified, in my mind.
Good heavens, folks, does anybody in this country own a hardcover dictionary anymore? All bolding mine:
Main Entry: 2warrant
Function: transitive verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old North French warantir, from warant
Date: 14th century
1 a : to declare or maintain with certainty : be sure that <I’ll warrant he’ll be here by noon> b : to assure (a person) of the truth of what is said
2 a : to guarantee to a person good title to and undisturbed possession of (as an estate) b : to provide a guarantee of the security of (as title to property sold) usually by an express covenant in the deed of conveyance
c : to guarantee to be as represented
d : to guarantee (as goods sold) especially in respect of the quality or quantity specified
3 : to guarantee security or immunity to : SECURE <I’ll warrant him from drowning – Shakespeare>
4 : to give warrant or sanction to : AUTHORIZE <the law warrants this procedure>
5 a : to give proof of the authenticity or truth of b : to give assurance of the nature of or for the undertaking of : GUARANTEE
6 : to serve as or give adequate ground or reason for <promising enough to warrant further consideration>
I was suprised to see that this is actually a correct usage. Warranted has a definition in the OED as a synonym for guaranteed (listed as a modern usage). Warrant as a verb meaning guarantee is listed in both the OED and Websters, so warranted as past tense and an adjective is acceptable.
This is what happens when you’re interrupted during posting a response. Thanks pl for a more complete answer.
Sheesh, PL, we don’t need no stinkin’ hardcover dictionary.
According to Merriam-Webster, “warranty” is a noun. “Warrant” is a noun and also a verb, “to warrant”.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/thesaurus
I have heard a word that’s pronounced “warranteed” used in a sentence to mean “guaranteed”. “This product is warranteed for one year.” I don’t recall ever seeing it in print, so I don’t know how it would be spelled; it’s just in conversation with a salesman or on TV. Obviously they’re using the noun “warranty” as a verb, the same way people use the noun “impact” as a verb. “How the tax referendum has impacted our community.”
I think we’re just looking at an instance of the marvelous flexibility of the English language.
To say that something is “warranted” usually does mean “justified”, but it depends on the context, whether it’s a floorwalker at Best Buy or a pundit on his soapbox talking about the use of unreasonable force by Our Nation’s Police.
Thanks for that pldennison. I have just never come across that usage before. In my defense, I don’t have access to an english dictionary without travelling.
And Duck Duck Goose, I’ll keep that link for future refenence.
Thank you all, I knew all about warrant meaning those things, but in this context I wasn’t expecting to show up.
FloChi
I think you’re right, DDG, about seeing our language in transition. However, I think warranteed and warranted are two different words. Warranted, pronounced with a short “e”, is an established word based on the verb warrant. (I tried to copy the pronunciation from the OED, but I couldn’t get the phonetic characters to work). Warranteed, pronounced with a long “e”, is based, as you point out, on using warranty as a verb. This is a newer usage that hasn’t made it into the dictionaries yet.