Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GUAR'AN-TY, v.t. [gar'anty; Fr. garantir; It. guarentire; Arm. goaranti; W. gwarantu, from gwar, secure, smooth, or rather from gwara, to fend, to fence, the root of guard, that is, to drive off, to hold off, to stop; D. waaren, to preserve, to indemnify; Sax. werian, to defend; Eng. to ward; allied to warren, &c. See Warrant.]

1. To warrant; to make sure; to undertake or engage that another person shall perform what he has stipulated; to oblige one's self to see that another's engagements are performed; to secure the performance of; as, to guaranty the execution of a treaty. Madison. Hamilton.
2. To undertake to secure to another, at all events, as claims, rights or possessions. Thus in the treaty of 1778, France guarantied to the United States their liberty, sovereignty and independence, and their possessions; and the United States guarantied to France its possessions in America. The United States shalt guaranty to every state in the Union a republican form of government. Const. of United States.
3. To indemnify; to save harmless. Note. This verb, whether written guaranty or guarantee, forms an awkward participle of the present tense; and we cannot relish either guarantying or guaranteeing. With the accent on the first syllable, as now pronounced, it seems expedient to drop the y in the participle, and write guaranting.