A Study of a Clear Etymological Mistake in Persian Dictionaries (the Words Chak and Cheque)

The word "chak" is an old Persian word which means deed and bill. Semantic and phonetic similarities of this word with the European word "cheque", which has been used in Persian in recent decades, has made lexicographers and researchers consider this Persian word as a root of the word "cheque" by mistake. An etymological study of this European word indicates that it has a Persian root, but its root is not the word "chak" rather the word "king" in chess is known a its root. The word "king" has been used in vocative phrases. While transferring into Persian due to strange phonetic and semantic changes, it has entered Persian as a loan word. This is the main reason of the mistake in Persian dictionaries regarding the root of this word. This article tries to study and criticize this clear etymological mistake.