Note 1 — VOLUME VI slice I Châtelet to Chicago (continued 7)

The original meaning of “check” is a move in the game of chess which directly attacks the king; the word comes through the Old Fr. eschec, eschac, from the Med. Lat. form scaccus of the Persian shāh, king, i.e. the king in the game of chess; cf. the origin of “mate” from the Arabic shah-mat, the king is dead. The word was early used in a transferred sense of a stoppage or rebuff, and so is applied to anything which stops or hinders a matter in progress, or which controls or restrains anything, hence a token, ticket or counterfoil which serves as a means of identification, &c.