Wordwyrt

exchequer

/ˈeksˌtʃekə/EKS-cheh-kur
/ˈɛksˌtʃɛkɚ/EKS-cheh-kur

Meaninga chess-board

Common meaning: the British government's finance department

Journey through time

  1. Old Frencheschequier‘a chess-board’source
  2. Middle Englishmeaning shiftsa chess-board → treasuryeschekere‘treasury’source
  3. Englishmeaning shiftstreasury → the British government's finance departmentexchequer‘the British government's finance department’ · today

Sources & notes

Meaning: “Meaning” is the sense that emerges from the word’s roots; “Common meaning” is today’s everyday sense. Both written by us.

Pronunciation

  • UK IPA: converted from the US form by rule (unchecked). Respelling: generated.
  • No UK recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-GB voice.
  • US IPA: CMUdict (BSD-2), converted to IPA by rule. Respelling: generated.
  • No US recording; the speaker uses your device’s en-US voice.

Origin: Built on Old French eschequier ‘a chess-board’.

Did you know: our wording, based on Skeat, Etymological Dictionary (1898), entry EXCHEQUER, p. 198 · dictionary scan

Roots

Related words

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