Direct Line radio advert - Please tell me I'm wrong

[IvanSTi]

Has anyone heard the recent Direct line radio advert?

I listen to local radio in the morning and evening commutes and this advert pops up every 15-20 minutes.

I'm no professor of English, but this advert is really bugging me now. So please tell me I'm wrong and it will put my mind at rest or if I'm right, it's going to drive me mad.

I don't really pay attention to it, so sorry for the lack of detail, essentially the ad is as follows "Blah blah blah, Direct line is underwrit by such-and-such, blah blah blah"

Now as far as I am aware there is no such word as "writ", so where has "underwrit" come from? Or am I wrong and all is well in the world?

[randlemarcus]

Of course there is such a word as "writ". The modern usage is a legal document, but it used to be used as you describe. https://www.google.co.uk/search?sourceid=chrome-ps...

Whether the usage in the advert was intentional is borderline though.

[IvanSTi]

Sorry yes, didn't think of that, but surely an insurance company is "underwritten" by another company? As in terms of a written document, not a writ document.

[randlemarcus]

Yes, but writ used to be commonplace instead of written.

Omar Khayyam said:

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all thy Tears wash out a Word of it.

I am not convinced that a local radio copywriter was paying homage to a thousand year dead Persian philosopher, but all things are possible with the creative sorts.