scaccarium

Forms

scaccārium n (genitive scaccāriī or scaccārī); second declension^[1] The DMLBS quotes the spellings scacarium, schacarium, schacharium and skaccarium.^[2]

Etymology

It is formed from Latin scaccus + -ārium, from the chess word for “check” or “king”, with the suffix of places and containers.^[1][2][3] The DMLBS derives it from scacca.^[2] The chess word itself comes from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king in chess”), from Persian.^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Köbler dates its first record in charters to 1118.^[3] The DMLBS has it in 1120, in a royal writ addressed to the barons of the Exchequer.^[2]

Semantic evolution

Its first sense is a chessboard, with uses for the game of chess, a square of the board and a chequered pattern on cloth.^[2][1] In England it was transferred to the counting board on which accounts were reckoned with counters: a treatise on the Exchequer explains that, as the table is called scaccarium, so is the court that sits at it.^[2]

It became the name of the fiscal department of the English crown, the Exchequer, and of similar courts in Scotland, Ireland and elsewhere, among them the Exchequer of the Jews.^[2] It also named the building, a session of the court held at Easter and Michaelmas, the accounts office of a monastery or estate, and it passed into a surname.^[2] Through Anglo-French escheker it gave English exchequer, whose governmental sense refers to a cloth divided in squares on the accounting table.^[4]

Timeline

• 1118 – It first appears in charters.^[3]
• 1120 – A royal writ is addressed to the barons of the Exchequer.^[2]
• 1168 – A Pipe Roll records the cost of a counting board for hearing the sheriff's accounts.^[2]
• c. 1300 – English exchequer appears, meaning a chessboard.^[4]
• 1341 – Scottish records use it of the Scottish Exchequer.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. (Medieval Latin) A chessboard; the game of chess; a square of the board.^[2][1][3]
2. (Medieval Latin) A counting board, a table for reckoning accounts.^[2][3]
3. (Medieval Latin) The Exchequer, the fiscal department and court of the English crown; similar courts elsewhere.^[2][1][3]
4. (Medieval Latin) A session of the court of the Exchequer.^[2][3]
5. (Medieval Latin) An accounts office of a church, monastery or manor.^[2]

Related words

• English exchequer
• English checker

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
4. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com