cheat

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈt͡ʃiːt/^[1]

Etymology

It is a shortening of Middle English acheten, eschete, from escheat,^[2][3][4][5] the legal reversion of property to the lord or state when the owner dies without heirs,^[6][7] from Old French eschete, literally that which falls to one, from escheoir, to fall due, from Late Latin *excadere, to fall away, from ex-, out, and cadere, to fall.^[6]

Earliest recorded meaning

Forfeited property, an escheat: the noun chet about 1378 in Barnhart, about 1375 in the OED.^[2][8] The verb cheten, to confiscate, is from 1440, in the Promptorium Parvulorum.^[2]

Semantic evolution

The sense moved from confiscating (mid-15th century) to depriving unfairly (the 1580s) and then to deceiving or tricking (the 1630s),^[6] probably through the unscrupulous conduct of the escheators who seized lands for the state.^[2] The sense to deceive is first recorded in 1590, in Shakespeare's Comedy of Errors.^[2][4] In thieves' cant a cheat was a stolen thing and then any thing at all (from 1567),^[8][3][6] and earlier, in the 1530s, dice.^[6] A fraud or deception is from the 1640s,^[6][8] and a swindler from 1664.^[8] Cheater is older than these senses, from the 14th century, as Anglo-French chetour for eschetour.^[3] To cheat on someone, to be sexually unfaithful, is attested by 1934.^[6]

Timeline

• c. 1375 – forfeited property.^[8]
• 1440 – to confiscate.^[2]
• 1567 – a thing (cant).^[8]
• 1590 – to deceive.^[2]
• 1641 – a fraud (noun).^[8]
• 1664 – a swindler.^[8]
• 1934 – to be unfaithful.^[6]

Modern meaning

Verb

1. To deceive or swindle, especially for one's own gain.
2. To deprive someone of something by trickery; to defraud.
3. To break the rules deliberately, as in a game or examination.
4. To escape or avoid something by luck or cunning: to cheat death.
5. (often with on) To be sexually unfaithful.

Noun

1. A person who cheats; a swindler.
2. An act of cheating; a fraud.

Word family

• cheater
• cheatingly
• cheatable
• outcheat
• windcheater
• cheat sheet

Related words

• escheat
• cadence
• case

Usage notes

Cheat was also the name of a wheaten bread of the second quality, of unknown origin, from late Middle English to the 17th century.^[9] In Northumberland and Somerset dialect a cheat was a false shirt front.^[10]

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ a b Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
7. ^ Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
8. ^ a b c d e f g h Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
10. ^ Wright, Joseph, ed. (1898–1905), The English Dialect Dictionary, 6 vols., Oxford: Henry Frowde; via EDD Online 4.0, University of Innsbruck (CC BY 4.0)