SARAH: Secure was a relatively new word in Elizabethan English. It came from the Latin prefix se-, meaning without, and the word cura, which means care, attention, or worry. In other words, secure meant without care or worry. Apparently the time after lunch was when King Hamlet felt more carefree.

RALPH: It wasn't until a little later that the term started taking on the more specific sense of being safe from attack or danger, for example, a secure location.

SARAH: However, I should add that the verb to secure did indeed mean to keep safe or to protect. We see this later in the very same scene, when Hamlet rejoins his friends after his interview with the ghost. Hamlet begins to act very strangely, and Horatio says, almost as a prayer, "Heavens secure him!"