What does "world of surety" mean? "world of certainty"?

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NewHopeR

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Himself shaped by Victorian literary narratives of escape to a medieval world of surety, Lawrence attempted in Arabia to enact his fantasy of return to a world of ...
 

BobK

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It means that the writer was under the misapprehension that 'surety' means 'being sure' :)

(Your guess is right. :up:)

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BobK

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That was a bit too flippant - I'm surprised nobody has objected yet. :) But you'll note that the Collins Dictionary definition relegates that meaning to 'obsolete'. In fact, as it's about T.E Lawrence the text was quite possibly written in the first half of last century.

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