English
hot check
Hot check comes from English hot ‘illegal, stolen’.
- English1500–presenthot‘illegal, stolen’
- Englishearliest quotation 1978hot check
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- English1500–presenthot‘illegal, stolen’
- Englishearliest quotation 1978hot check
Earliest quotation: 1978, Johnny Cash, There Ain’t No Good Chain Gang: “And you don’t go writing hot checks down in…”
Proto-Indo-European *keHy- ‘to heat; to become hot’
Proto-Germanic *haitaz ‘hot’
Proto-West Germanic *hait
Old English hāt ‘hot’
Middle English hot
English hot
Proto-Indo-European *tek- ‘to take, receive, obtain’
…
Arabic شَاه ‘king or check at chess’
Medieval Latin scaccus ‘check (in chess)’
Old French eschec
Middle English chek
English check
The story
From sense hot (‘illegal, stolen’) – compare hot property (‘stolen goods’).
Every English word from English hot
Today it means
noun A check with non-sufficient funds (not enough money in the bank to back it up), written fraudulently.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / English hot / hot check