- chancery (n.)
- late 14c., "court of the Lord Chancellor of England," contracted from chancellery (c. 1300), from Old French chancelerie (12c.), from Medieval Latin cancellaria (see chancellor).
- Bismarck
- "drink of champagne and stout" (also called a black velvet), 1910, named for the German chancellor (1815-1898), who was said to have been fond of it. The surname is said to be short for Biscofsmark "bishop's boundary."
- clarendon (n.)
- a thickened Roman type face, 1845, evidently named for the Clarendon press at Oxford University, which was set up 1713 in the Clarendon Building, named for university Chancellor Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon.
- checker (n.2)
- "table covered with a checked cloth," specialized sense of checker (n.1), late 14c. (in Anglo-Latin from c. 1300); especially a table for counting money or keeping accounts (revenue reckoned with counters); later extended to "the fiscal department of the English Crown; the Exchequer (mid-14c.; in Anglo-Latin from late 12c.).
- exchequer (n.)
- c. 1300, from Anglo-French escheker "a chessboard," from Old French eschequier, from Medieval Latin scaccarium "chess board" (see check (n.1); also see checker (n.2)). Government financial sense began under the Norman kings of England and refers to a cloth divided in squares that covered a table on which accounts of revenue were reckoned with counters, and which apparently reminded people of a chess board. Respelled with an -x- based on the mistaken belief that it originally was a Latin ex- word.
- chancellor (n.)
- early 12c., from Old French chancelier (12c.), from Late Latin cancellarius "keeper of the barrier, secretary, usher of a law court," so called because he worked behind a lattice (Latin cancellus) at a basilica or law court (see chancel). In the Roman Empire, a sort of court usher; the post gradually gained importance in the Western kingdoms. A variant form, canceler, existed in Old English, from Old North French, but was replaced by this central French form.
- remembrance (n.)
- c. 1300, "a memory, recollection," from Old French remembrance (11c.), from remembrer (see remember). From late 14c. as "consideration, reflection; present consciousness of a past event; store of personal experiences available to recollection, capacity to recall the past." Also late 14c. as "memento, keepsake, souvenir," and "a commemoration, remembering, ritual of commemoration." Meaning "faculty of memory, capability of remembering" is early 15c.
British Remembrance Day, the Sunday nearest Nov. 11 (originally in memory of the dead of World War I) is attested from 1921. A remembrancer (early 15c.) was a royal official of the Exchequer tasked with recording and collecting debts due to the Crown; hence also, figuratively "Death" (late 15c.). - creationism (n.)
- 1847, originally a Christian theological position that God immediately created a soul for each person born; from creation + -ism. As a name for the religious reaction to Darwin, opposed to evolution, it is attested from 1880.
James Ussher (1581-1656), Archbishop of Armagh, Primate of All Ireland, and Vice-Chancellor of Trinity College in Dublin was highly regarded in his day as a churchman and as a scholar. Of his many works, his treatise on chronology has proved the most durable. Based on an intricate correlation of Middle Eastern and Mediterranean histories and Holy writ, it was incorporated into an authorized version of the Bible printed in 1701, and thus came to be regarded with almost as much unquestioning reverence as the Bible itself. Having established the first day of creation as Sunday 23 October 4004 B.C. ... Ussher calculated the dates of other biblical events, concluding, for example, that Adam and Eve were driven from Paradise on Monday 10 November 4004 BC, and that the ark touched down on Mt Ararat on 5 May 1491 BC "on a Wednesday". [Craig, G.Y., and E.J. Jones, "A Geological Miscellany," Princeton University Press, 1982.]
- check (n.1)
- c. 1300, "a call in chess noting one's move has placed his opponent's king (or another major piece) in immediate peril," from Old French eschequier "a check at chess" (also "chess board, chess set"), from eschec "the game of chess; chessboard; check; checkmate," from Vulgar Latin *scaccus, from Arabic shah, from Persian shah "king," the principal piece in a chess game (see shah; also compare checkmate (n.)). Also c. 1300 in a generalized sense, "harmful incident or event."
When the king is in check that player's choices are severely limited. Hence, "sudden stoppage" (early 14c.), and by c. 1700 to "a token of ownership used to check against, and prevent, loss or theft" (surviving in hat check) and "a check against forgery or alteration," which gave the modern financial use of "bank check, money draft" (first recorded 1798 and often spelled cheque), probably influenced by exchequer. Checking account is attested from 1897, American English. Blank check in the figurative sense attested by 1849. Checks and balances is from 1782, perhaps originally suggesting machinery.
