chequer

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See also: Chequer

English[edit]

Chequers

Etymology[edit]

See checker.

(fruit): Apparently in allusion to the chequered or spotted appearance of the fruit. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “the surmises that chequer may be a corruption of choker, and that ‘choker’ may once have been the name, are gratuitous.”[1]

Pronunciation[edit]

Noun[edit]

chequer (plural chequers)

  1. The edible fruit of the wild service tree, Sorbus torminalis.
  2. Alternative spelling of checker (in certain senses only)

Derived terms[edit]

Verb[edit]

chequer (third-person singular simple present chequers, present participle chequering, simple past and past participle chequered)

  1. Alternative spelling of checker
    • 1711 December 12 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, December 1, 1711”, in The Spectator, number 237; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, [], volume III, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
      Our minds are, as it were, chequered with truth and falsehood.
      The spelling has been modernized.
    • 1840-41, Charles Dickens, Barnaby Rudge
      A gleam of sun shining through the unsashed window, and chequering the dark workshop with a broad patch of light, fell full upon him, as though attracted by his sunny heart.

References[edit]

  1. ^ James A. H. Murray [et al.], editors (1884–1928), “Che·quer, sb.2”, in A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (Oxford English Dictionary), volume II (C), London: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 321, column 3.

Middle English[edit]

Noun[edit]

chequer

  1. Alternative form of cheker