Check-cheque-checque
November 23rd 2007 14:39
As a minor hobby, I enjoy learning the derivations of words, and playing around with them. (Some readers might remember I almost turned this blog into a word-play blog at one point.)
I find the use of the words check and checking account by the Americans, when they mean, cheque and cheque account, can often be confusing, even though I understand the use of it.
For instance, I misread a sentence that had the words, checking accounts, to mean someone was actually checking the accounts. But what the Yanks mean is an account that’s processed by a check, (or cheque).
We can’t actually blame the Americans for the spelling of the word. It seems that the Brits also used it quite comfortably up until the 1800s, (as well as an even stranger spelling – checque) and then decided that cheque should mean the thing we write on to pay someone, and check should be used for all the other meanings. (Checque went by the board, thank goodness.)
Apparently the word cheque derives from an Arabic word, Saqq, which means a written document guaranteeing payment. The English borrowed the word somewhere around 1220 – in the same way they’ve borrowed words from every language under the sun since time immemorial.
I find the use of the words check and checking account by the Americans, when they mean, cheque and cheque account, can often be confusing, even though I understand the use of it.
For instance, I misread a sentence that had the words, checking accounts, to mean someone was actually checking the accounts. But what the Yanks mean is an account that’s processed by a check, (or cheque).
We can’t actually blame the Americans for the spelling of the word. It seems that the Brits also used it quite comfortably up until the 1800s, (as well as an even stranger spelling – checque) and then decided that cheque should mean the thing we write on to pay someone, and check should be used for all the other meanings. (Checque went by the board, thank goodness.)
Apparently the word cheque derives from an Arabic word, Saqq, which means a written document guaranteeing payment. The English borrowed the word somewhere around 1220 – in the same way they’ve borrowed words from every language under the sun since time immemorial.
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