Etymology

chequer

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Today it means: The edible fruit of the wild service tree, Sorbus torminalis. Full definition →

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The story

See checker. (fruit): Apparently in allusion to the chequered or spotted appearance of the fruit. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, “the surmises that chequer may be a corruption of choker, and that ‘choker’ may once have been the name, are gratuitous.”

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.