cheat English · revision 10261

+ {{infobox|confidence=established|formation=clipping|attested=c. 1375|origins=en escheat}}

+

+ ==Pronunciation==

+ * IPA: /ˈt͡ʃiːt/^(Wiktionary)

+

+ ==Etymology==

+ It is a shortening of Middle English acheten, eschete, from [[escheat]],^(Barnhart 1988)^(Hoad 1986)^(MWU 2024)^(NODE 1998) the legal reversion of property to the lord or state when the owner dies without heirs,^(Etymonline)^(Cresswell 2021) 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.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Earliest recorded meaning==

+ Forfeited property, an escheat: the noun chet about 1378 in Barnhart, about 1375 in the OED.^(Barnhart 1988)^(OED 1989) The verb cheten, to confiscate, is from 1440, in the ''Promptorium Parvulorum''.^(Barnhart 1988)

+

+ ==Semantic evolution==

+ The sense moved from confiscating (mid-15th century) to depriving unfairly (the 1580s) and then to deceiving or tricking (the 1630s),^(Etymonline) probably through the unscrupulous conduct of the escheators who seized lands for the state.^(Barnhart 1988) The sense to deceive is first recorded in 1590, in Shakespeare's ''Comedy of Errors''.^(Barnhart 1988)^(MWU 2024) In thieves' cant a cheat was a stolen thing and then any thing at all (from 1567),^(OED 1989)^(Hoad 1986)^(Etymonline) and earlier, in the 1530s, dice.^(Etymonline) A fraud or deception is from the 1640s,^(Etymonline)^(OED 1989) and a swindler from 1664.^(OED 1989) ''Cheater'' is older than these senses, from the 14th century, as Anglo-French chetour for eschetour.^(Hoad 1986) To cheat on someone, to be sexually unfaithful, is attested by 1934.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Timeline==

+ * c. 1375 – forfeited property.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1440 – to confiscate.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1567 – a thing (cant).^(OED 1989)

+ * 1590 – to deceive.^(Barnhart 1988)

+ * 1641 – a fraud (noun).^(OED 1989)

+ * 1664 – a swindler.^(OED 1989)

+ * 1934 – to be unfaithful.^(Etymonline)

+

+ ==Modern meaning==

+ ===Verb===

+ # To deceive or [[swindle]], especially for one's own gain.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To deprive someone of something by trickery; to [[defraud]].^(AHD)

+ # To break the rules deliberately, as in a game or examination.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # To escape or avoid something by luck or cunning: ''to cheat death''.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+ # ''(often with on)'' To be sexually unfaithful.^(AHD)^(Collins 2023)

+

+ ===Noun===

+ # A person who cheats; a [[swindler]].^(AHD)

+ # An act of cheating; a fraud.^(AHD)

+

+ ==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.^(SOED 2002) In Northumberland and Somerset dialect a cheat was a false shirt front.^(Wright 1898)

+

+ ==References==

+ {{reflist}}