User:SOTO/Forum Archive/Spelling debates/@comment-24894325-20151219214614/@comment-24894325-20151220120534

Touché.

Now regarding the various uses of the root check. I took a brief look in the Oxford dictionary and it is as usual: two main meanings with 12 and 6 submeanings. If we try to detail them all here, it will not be very useful. Perhaps, the simplest solution is to rename this thread to checkers vs. chequers (board game). This will both restrict the applicability of this thread and alert onlookers of possible complications for other similar words.

Having said this, I think this thread has a direct applicability to the chequered pattern of alternating squares.

The main other non-ck word is, I believe, "cheque" as a means of payment (see Cheques, Lies and Videotape). In AE it is of course "check." This might have implications for things like chequing account etc. And this (check) seems worth checking out (pun unintended). I just bumped into Reality Cheque (comic story), where British spelling is used in the title but American one is (maybe) present in text. I do not feel comfortable changing it without access to the comic strip because it still can be a clever word play from the authors.

If anyone can remember another meaning that warrants the "qu" spelling, it can be added here or made into a separate thread. Actually, if this thread is restricted to the board game/pattern, it might make sense to make a separate thread for cheque vs. check (I checked that it is not on the cheat sheet).