The etymology of cheque and the reason it’s spelled that way is wonderful. Cheques are so called because they were a check on fraud (compared to an IOU anyway). That meaning of check comes from what you say in chess when you endanger the opponent’s king, and this comes from the Persian word for king, Shah. (The “h” is pronounced, and became a hard “k” sound in English).
The same game gave its name to the checkerboard. That kind of board was used in medieval England for the royal accounts or Exchequer. Like many things royal it retained more of its French roots in its spelling. In British English, when the word “check” (spelled that way) was applied to the financial instrument, the financial association ended up lending the French spelling to monetary cheques. But Americans didn’t call their treasury an exchequer and if they had they probably would’ve spelled it wrong anyway - so they had no reason to do the same thing, and here we are.
The etymology of cheque and the reason it’s spelled that way is wonderful. Cheques are so called because they were a check on fraud (compared to an IOU anyway). That meaning of check comes from what you say in chess when you endanger the opponent’s king, and this comes from the Persian word for king, Shah. (The “h” is pronounced, and became a hard “k” sound in English).
The same game gave its name to the checkerboard. That kind of board was used in medieval England for the royal accounts or Exchequer. Like many things royal it retained more of its French roots in its spelling. In British English, when the word “check” (spelled that way) was applied to the financial instrument, the financial association ended up lending the French spelling to monetary cheques. But Americans didn’t call their treasury an exchequer and if they had they probably would’ve spelled it wrong anyway - so they had no reason to do the same thing, and here we are.
Fascinating, thanks for sharing!