I was driving this weekend and talking to my in-laws. My wife read an article to us about the nursery rhyme Ring Around the Rossy and how it has it origins during the Black Plague. It made me think about other stories about words and phrases that I had heard and what their origins were. Several years ago I was reading about the merchants seamen who used to sail all over the world and need people to invest in their undertaking. In the story a Ship's Captain, who was looking for investors to back his adventure, would place his name and ship on the table cloth in a tavern and those interested in investing in the adventure would write their name under it and the amount they wanted to invest. Thus the people who were investing became known as the underwriters. In researching this article I found that underwriters also refers to people who would agree to put up money to insure the ship and its cargo against loss to the investors. The Underwriters would sign up on a sheet provided by Lloyd's of London, who would hole the money, and would put up an amount of money in hopes of getting a return by sharing in the profits of the adventurer. The people who agreed to put up the money became know as the ships Underwriters. I noticed in the Play Mary Poppins that was performed in Chicago, the Bankers, when talking to Mr Banks about his children's behavior, mentioned the last financial disaster was when they had underwritten a shipment of tea to the colonies.

Today an underwriter is one who determines the risk to the insurance company and if the company wants to assume the risk.  Today you can insure almost anything for a price.  There have been that some reports that ship owners have insured against being held hostage by the pirates in Somalia.  Other reports have stated that there is a contact in London that is providing insurance information to the pirates as to which ships are insured and how much coverage.  This will be a factor that the underwriter will figure into the premium that the company will charge.  Just as the ships have insurance against pirates you can insure anything of value that you have or an event can be insured against poor weather if you can find an insurance company to underwrite the risk.