ubezpieczam

Ubezpieczam is the first-person singular present tense form of the Polish verb ubezpieczać (and, in its perfective counterpart, ubezpieczyć). It roughly means “I insure” or “I am insuring.” The verb describes the act of arranging insurance coverage or, less commonly, providing insurance as a service. It is used transitively with an object naming what is being insured, for example ubezpieczam dom (I insure the house) or samochód, and can also be used reflexively in the sense of obtaining protection for oneself, as in ubezpieczam się (I insure myself).

Lexical family and related forms include ubezpieczenie (insurance), ubezpieczyciel (insurer), as well as the imperfective ubezpieczać and the perfective ubezpieczyć. The imperfective form is used for ongoing or repeated action, while the perfective form denotes a completed act of securing insurance, often with a future aspect, for instance ubezpieczę (I will insure).

In practice, ubezpieczam is common in contexts where a speaker acts as an insurer or as someone who arranges coverage for another item. To state that one already has coverage, Polish speakers more often say mam ubezpieczenie (I have insurance) or jestem ubezpieczony (I am insured). The term is embedded in a broader insurance system that includes private policies and public social insurance arrangements in Poland.

Etymology traces to bezpieczny (safe) with the prefix u-, forming a verb meaning to make safe or to provide insurance. The word is standard within formal and informal Polish.