Your opinion on gratuities, please

[MicCanberra]

1 hour ago, Aus Traveller said:

You could certainly say "assure". Maybe I am taking the word literally, but I understand "insure" to relate to insurance of some kind.

Insure works as in option 2, as in 'to secure prompt service.'

 

insure

/ɪnˈʃʊə,ɪnˈʃɔː/

verb

 

1. 1.

   arrange for compensation in the event of damage to or loss of (property), or injury to or the death of (someone), in exchange for regular payments to a company or to the state.

   "the table should be insured for £2,500"
2. 2.

   secure or protect someone against (a possible contingency).

   "by appeasing Celia they might insure themselves against further misfortune"

[arxcards]

Whichever way, the first use of tipping in the English language in the context of a gift was around 1700.

 

Initialisms were seldom used in the 2nd half of the 1800's, and acronyms became popular with the advent of telegraph. The first known initialism is 140 years after the first known use of tipping. Back when this origin of tip as a capitalism or acronym was meant to have originated, people just didn't communicate that way. For me, ensure or insure is just semantics.