exchequer [ME] In around 1300 an exchequer was ‘a chessboard’. The word came into English from Old French eschequier, which was based on medieval Latin scaccus ‘check’—the origin of our word *check. It took on its current, very different sense from the department of state that dealt with the revenues of the Norman kings of England. In those days they kept the accounts by placing counters on a chequered tablecloth, which was called the Exchequer.