cheater

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English chetour, also cheitur,^[2] shortened from Middle English eschetour, also achetour, that is escheator.^[3][2][4] Merriam-Webster calls it a modification of the Anglo-Norman eschetour.^[5] The longer form is from Anglo-Norman eschete, that is escheat,^[3] or from Old French escheoit, the past participle of escheoir (“to fall due, happen”), with the agent suffix -our.^[5][4] The Old French verb is from Late Latin *excadō (“to fall away, fall out”), from ex- (“out”) and cadō (“to fall”), from Proto-Indo-European *kad- (“to fall”).^[4] The verb cheat has the same origin.^[4][6]

Earliest recorded meaning

An officer appointed to look after the king's escheats, the property that fell to the Crown when an owner died without heirs: about 1330, in a political song.^[3][2][4] The Middle English Dictionary also has Chetour as a surname in 1327.^[2]

Semantic evolution

According to Etymonline, the royal officers in charge of escheats evidently had a reputation for unscrupulousness, so that the related verb cheat moved from "to confiscate" to "to deprive unfairly" (1580s) and then "to deceive, trick" (1630s).^[4] The noun followed: by the 1530s a cheater was a dishonest player or gamester.^[4][7] From 1606, in Dekker, it was anyone who deals fraudulently.^[3] The OED notes that its 17th-century quotations show the passage from the official to the swindler.^[3] Shakespeare still played on the old sense in The Merry Wives of Windsor ("I will be cheater to them both"), which Johnson (1755) explained as escheater.^[8] In the 20th century American slang used it for spectacles (1920, in Wodehouse),^[3] for an unfaithful partner (1916)^[9] and for anything that makes a job easier, such as a pipe slipped over a wrench handle for leverage (1941).^[10][11]

Timeline

• c. 1330 – an escheator, the officer in charge of the king's escheats (obsolete by 1662).^[3][2]
• 1530s – a dishonest gamester, a sharper.^[4][7] The current OED's first quotation is from about 1555.^[3]
• 1606 – one who cheats or deceives; a swindler.^[3]
• 1916 – slang, an adulterer.^[9]
• 1920 – US slang, in the plural: spectacles.^[3]
• 1941 – US slang, a device that makes a job easier.^[10][11]

Meanings

Noun

1. A person who cheats, acting dishonestly to gain an advantage or deceiving others: Nobody would play poker with a known cheater.^[5][3][1]
2. (slang, in the plural) Spectacles, glasses.^[5][3]
3. (US slang) A tool or device that makes a job easier, such as a length of pipe fitted over a wrench handle.^[10][11]
4. (obsolete, 1330–1662) An escheator.^[3][5][2]

Related words

• cheat
• escheat
• escheator

Usage notes

The OED notes that a systematic or habitual cheater is now usually called a cheat.^[3] In Sussex dialect, cheater was also a name for the red-backed shrike.^[12]

References

1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
5. ^ a b c d e Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
7. ^ a b Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
8. ^ Johnson, Samuel (1755), A Dictionary of the English Language, London; 4th ed. 1773; Johnson's Dictionary Online, ed. Beth Rapp Young et al.
9. ^ a b Green, Jonathon (2010), Green's Dictionary of Slang, London: Chambers; digital ed. 2016–, https://greensdictofslang.com
10. ^ a b c Dalzell, Tom; Victor, Terry, eds. (2013), The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, 2nd ed., London: Routledge
11. ^ a b c Cassidy, Frederic G. & Joan Houston Hall (eds.) (1985–2002), Dictionary of American Regional English, vols I–IV, Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press
12. ^ 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)