# Do we say "check" rather than "bill" because "bill" has negative connotations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 23, 2018, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643 "2018-05-23T00:41:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/41 "2018-05-24T11:37:19Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > You’re not pantomiming you signing a credit card slip or similar; you’re pantomiming the waiter writing out the order check, which you now wish him to bring you so you can settle up. No, my pantomime is of me signing, complete with little flourish at the end. If I want someone to roll their car window down, I do the “roll down” pantomime, not the “poke a button” pantomime. Now if I could just get out of this damn invisible cube. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/42 "2018-05-24T14:04:35Z")
These little pantomimes do eventually change though. These days the universal sign for a phone is to hold up a hand with a thumb to an ear and a finger pointing to the mouth. Fifty years ago, the common sign was winding an invisible handle, even though only a few could actually remember when you had to wind a telephone handle to contact the operator. I suspect that in the future the bill will be displayed on your mobile communication device and paid by a tap of a finger and car windows will open or close on voice commands. There may be some very expensive restaurants where your food is cooked and served by real people, but they will be few and far between. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/43 "2018-05-24T18:18:14Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > You’re not pantomiming you signing a credit card slip or similar; you’re pantomiming the waiter writing out the order check, which you now wish him to bring you so you can settle up. D’oh! That never occurred to me. ---
**Author:** ![Saltire](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saltire/32/553_2.png) [@Saltire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saltire)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/44 "2018-05-24T18:32:14Z")
When I’m in the pub this evening, I think I’ll ask them for my invoice, just to see what happens. ---
**Author:** ![Sigmagirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@Sigmagirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigmagirl)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/45 "2018-05-24T21:05:44Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > You’re not pantomiming you signing a credit card slip or similar; you’re pantomiming the waiter writing out the order check, which you now wish him to bring you so you can settle up. Funny. I always make a check mark ✅ in the air. I’ve seen others do it. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/46 "2018-05-24T21:48:32Z")
> [@UDS](#): > > “Check” is what you say in a chess game when you have played a potentially winning move; it comes ultimately from the Persian word for “king”, I believe. Sorry to diverge a bit. You don’t say check in a serious game of chess. (I said it once to a grandmaster and he told me off afterwards!) Check simply means your opponent’s King is attacked. It has little to do with potentially winning moves. The Persian for King is ‘Shah’. It’s a reasonable belief that ‘checkmate’ comes from the overheard Persian phrase ‘Shah Mat’, which means ‘The King is dead.’ (It’s also reasonable that the Rook in chess is named after the Persian word ‘Rukh’, meaning chariot.) ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/47 "2018-05-24T22:28:31Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > Things could get really interesting for an indiscreet American in a Czech restaurant. Or for a young American expat there who gets an entry level office job. “The American’s in the mailroom!”, people would quip. In a related vein to the OP: Why do we use the word “bill” to mean a piece of paper currency? Elsewhere they are called “notes”. Holding a note is good, since it represents some other person or entity’s obligation to pay you or give you something in return. It is the opposite of a bill in much the same way as a check would be. Come to think of it, an outstanding check you have just written is really more like a bill from your own perspective than it is like holding currency or a loan note. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/48 "2018-05-24T22:34:22Z")
> [@Sigmagirl](#): > > Funny. I always make a check mark ✅ in the air. I’ve seen others do it. Much less useful internationally, though; even where you share a spoken language. In the UK, for instance, that’s called a tick, which would require two levels of decoding to associate with you wanting the bill. The only situation in which I can recall seeing that gesture here is when the person making it feels they’ve scored a rhetorical point against someone. ---
**Author:** ![tim314](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim314/32/3468_2.png) [@tim314](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim314)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2018, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/49 "2018-05-24T23:01:40Z")
I suspect it’s related to the customer checking over the items on their bill, to make sure they were billed for the food they actually received. I can’t find a definitive cite to confirm this, though. But in roughly chronological order the word seems to have gone from “threatening (and thus restricting the movements of) the king in chess” to a general sense of “restraining something” (keeping it “in check”), to “preventing error” (“checking” a list), to “restaurant bill” – while still holding on to the older meanings as new ones were added. See [check | Etymology, origin and meaning of check by etymonline](https://www.etymonline.com/word/check) Edited to add: In other words, what **UDS** said back in post #4. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 6:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/50 "2018-05-25T06:47:49Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![K2500](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f6c823/32.png) [@K2500](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K2500)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2018, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643/51 "2018-05-25T08:14:47Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I recall a few times when I heard “check” used, but “bill” is much more frequently used. Many times, I’ve also heard the word “tab,” as in “Can I get our tab please?” I prefer the phrase “tab me out” when I’d like to check bill… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-we-say-check-rather-than-bill-because-bill-has-negative-connotations/814643.md?page=2)