Underwriter

When marine insurance was the only insurance known, a person soliciting a contract exhibited in writing, in a resort for meixhants or insurers, the particulars of his application, or sent the application to an insurance- broker. A person who was willing to take the risk wrote underneath the app Jication the sum, his name, residence, etc. Hence " underwrite " (and," underwriting ") came to mean to accept proposed contracts for insurance, to carry on the business of insuring against loss by storm, shipwreck, fire, etc.

See Insurancb.