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MEASURE THE GRAPH ↗NOT JUST A DICTIONARY LOOKUP
6 EVIDENCE COLLECTIONSSEARCH
THE GRAPH.
Find a modern word—or search sideways through reconstructed roots, historical forms, meanings, languages, scholars, sources, claims, disputes, and witnesses.
017
MODERN ENTRY POINTS
WORD DOSSIERS
verb · nounexact headword
check
To verify, restrain, mark, or issue a bank draft today; a word whose oldest English history begins with a threatened king in chess.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗verb · nounheadword prefix
checkmate
An inescapable chess defeat and, figuratively, complete thwarting; a compound transmitted through French, Arabic, and Persian chess language.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗Old Norse verbdossier summary
fjá
Old Norse fjá was a verb meaning to hate. The Dictionary of Old Norse Prose classifies it as poetic and exposes zero prose citations; its glossarium links point to the early form fía and the reconstructed Proto-Germanic *fi(j)ēn-. Cleasby and Vigfússon call the verb obsolete, compare Gothic fijan and Old English feon or fjan, and locate it in Hýmiskviða 22 and Lokasenna 35, with the reflexive fjásk in Skírnismál 33. Fritzner independently gives the same three locations. The normalized verse texts preserve three different grammatical surfaces: goð fjá in Hýmiskviða, mangi fíár in Lokasenna, and Freyr fiásk in Skírnismál. Lexicon Poeticum likewise reports three poetic records, but explicitly warns that its concordance is unreviewed and that dates should be checked. These are source-reported lexical and edited-text records, not directly inspected manuscript objects, and three records in the reviewed poetic concordance are not a census of every Old Norse utterance. The finite verb became a tiny poetic fossil while its inherited participial relative fjándi became the ordinary enemy noun and accumulated 222 citations in ONP's prose corpus. Those corpus totals are not directly frequency-comparable, but the contrast makes the grammatical survival visible. The generated possible runic inscription shown by modern dictionary transcriptions is not historical evidence and is excluded. No historical sound recording exists, so the dossier does not fabricate one exact pronunciation.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗Old Norse masculine noundossier summary
fjándi
Old Norse fjándi is a masculine noun whose inherited shape still exposes a prehistoric agent formation. Cleasby and Vigfússon compare Gothic fiands, Old English feond, German Feind, Swedish fiende, and Danish fjende, identify the nd as participial, and gloss the older formation as properly a hater. They then distinguish the ordinary enemy sense from a post-Christian fiend development. The University of Copenhagen Dictionary of Old Norse Prose supplies 222 citations and six semantic zones: enemy or opponent; devil, monster, or demon; evil spirit; pagan god; the Devil or Satan; and a derogatory term for a hated or bewitched person, animal, or object. Lexicon Poeticum independently exposes 49 poetic records, including source-reported tenth-century enemy uses and later Christian fiend uses, while warning that its concordance and dates require checking. The noun therefore does not possess one timeless true meaning: an inherited lexicalized hater became an ordinary enemy word, and the branch later accumulated several demonic and derogatory senses. The displayed pronunciation is an editorial normalized approximation, not recorded historical audio. No underlying manuscript object is claimed as directly inspected in this dossier.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗Old Norse weak verbdossier summary
hata
Old Norse hata is not only a medieval label for an inward feeling. The Dictionary of Old Norse Prose structures 101 prose citations under four active senses before its participial and reflexive branches: persecute; despise, reject, or cast aside; mock or humiliate; and hate, despise, or stand hostile toward. That ordering is a lexicographic analysis, not a chronology of semantic change. Fritzner independently begins with pursue or seek to destroy, continues through damage or destruction, and only then gives hate opposed to love. Zoëga likewise preserves poetic damage or destruction beside ordinary hate, while Cleasby and Vigfússon record active, reflexive, reciprocal, participial, and disputed poetic uses. Lexicon Poeticum displays eleven linked rows, including variants, damage, destruction, persecution, loathing, haters, and the gold-spending formula, but warns that its concordance has not been reviewed and that dates need checking. A c1200 scan of Holm perg 15 4°, folio 89v, was directly inspected against ONP's diplomatic transcription and visibly preserves hata in the line Elſcaþu hréinlife oc hata engi maɴ. All other rows remain source-reported. The generated possible runic inscriptions on modern dictionary transcriptions are excluded, and no exact historical pronunciation is invented.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗noun · verbhistorical form
king
An inherited English title continuing Old English cyning and reconstructed Germanic *kuninga-, a formation built on the Germanic kin or lineage base.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗nouncontrarian claim
shah
The Persian title for a king or sovereign, borrowed into English in the sixteenth century.
OPEN THE FULL LINEAGE ↗027
ATTESTED / RECONSTRUCTED / BOUNDARY
HISTORICAL FORMS
●
Present-Day English / Indo-European
check
verify, restrain, inspect, mark; a bank draft
- DATE
- 14th century–today
- MATCH
- exact historical form
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
checkmate
an inescapable chess defeat; complete thwarting
- DATE
- 14th century–today
- MATCH
- historical-form prefix
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Middle English / Indo-European
chekmaten / chekmat
to checkmate or frustrate; the mating position
- DATE
- 14th–15th centuries
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Old French / Indo-European
eschac / eschés
chess pieces; a check against the king
- DATE
- Old French period
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Anglo-French / Indo-European
eschec
a king in check; the warning in chess
- DATE
- Anglo-French period
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Present-Day English / Indo-European
king
a monarch; by extension a preeminent person, game piece, card, or crowned checker
- DATE
- before the 12th century–today
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
Classical Arabic / Afro-Asiatic
māt
checkmated; alternatively interpreted as “has died”
- DATE
- Arabic chess vocabulary
- MATCH
- gloss
- DOSSIERS
- 1
0312
WHERE INTERPRETATION IS TESTED
CLAIMS & DISPUTES
SCHOLARLY DISPUTES / 9
openprobableexact word
Did Arabic šāh pass directly into French?
The Arabic source is well supported, but Merriam-Webster leaves direct borrowing versus mediation through Spanish jaque unresolved.
resolvedestablishedexact word
Did check begin with verification?
No. The oldest sequence starts with chess, then stop and restraint; verification and banking are later semantic branches.
openprobableword prefix
Does checkmate literally mean the king is dead?
That is a longstanding Arabic analysis, but Merriam-Webster and Encyclopaedia Iranica favor a Persian loan meaning left, helpless, broken, or paralyzed.
resolvedestablishedword prefix
Is figurative checkmate a late metaphor?
Not entirely. Merriam-Webster reports Middle English chekmaten with both chess and frustrate senses.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Are Lexicon Poeticum dates and counts definitive without review?
No. The project explicitly says the concordance has not been reviewed and that dates, especially, should be checked.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Are the Lexicon Poeticum dates definitive?
No. The project explicitly says its concordance is unreviewed and dates may come from earlier editions and should be checked.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Were the Munich hatan and hatandiero readings directly inspected?
Yes. Full-resolution MDZ images of Cgm 25 scans 45 and 142 were visually checked against the line-level transcription and dictionary inventory.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Was the Munich heti token directly inspected?
Yes. The full-resolution MDZ image of Cgm 25 scan 41 was visually checked against the dictionary and LWL transcription.
resolvedestablishedposition text
Did the English word shah produce check?
No. English shah and English check are cousins: both reach back independently to Persian šāh, while check travels through chess, Arabic, and French.
CONTRARIAN TRUTHS / 3
RANK 69GRADE Aexact ranked word
Your bank check began as a threat to a king.
Persian šāh becomes a chess warning, French eschec, and English check. Stop and restraint later produce verification and the anti-forgery counterfoil behind the bank draft.
RANK 181GRADE A-ranked-word prefix
The king is not securely dead.
The familiar “shāh māt = the king died” translation matches Arabic morphology, but the better-supported historical analysis treats māt as a Persian loan meaning helpless, broken, or at a loss.
RANK 151GRADE Acontrarian claim
The king is still hiding inside check.
English shah directly borrows the Persian royal title. A much longer route through chess vocabulary carries that same king-word into English check and its later restraint, verification, and banking senses.
043
BOOKS / DICTIONARIES / ARTICLES / DATABASES
SOURCES
historical dictionary25 CLAIM LINKS
Check — Word History
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗historical dictionary17 CLAIM LINKS
Checkmate — Word History
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2026
title prefixAUDIT EVERY USE ↗editorial reference29 CLAIM LINKS
Had a Long Day of Travel? Check Into a Hospital
Merriam-Webster Editors / 2017
source titleAUDIT EVERY USE ↗053
FIRST USES & HISTORICAL OBJECTS
ATTESTATION WITNESSES
DIRECTLY INSPECTEDprinted book
A tide passage in John Harris’s Lexicon technicum uses check as a verb meaning restrain or impede.
check / check / 1704
Lexicon technicum: or, an universal English dictionary of arts and sciencesexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexicographic first-use report for check
check / check / 14th century
Check — Word Historyexact attested form / OPEN RECORD ↗SOURCE REPORTEDlexicographic first use
English lexicographic first-use report for checkmate
checkmate / checkmate / 14th century
Checkmate — Word Historyattested-form prefix / OPEN RECORD ↗06
SEARCH IS DISCOVERY, NOT PROOF
EVERY RESULT OPENS A PERMANENT EVIDENCE RECORD.
Matching text only locates a record. It does not raise confidence, settle a dispute, establish cognacy, or turn a source report into direct inspection. Follow the result into its citations and editorial limits.