# Why are restaurant bills called 'checks'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 26, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778 "2013-04-26T17:53:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/1 "2013-04-26T17:53:40Z")
A search revealed a thread from about a year ago asking if this was common in the US; no one thought to ask why the term is used at all, a shameful lack of curiosity on our part. Does anybody know? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/2 "2013-04-26T17:58:05Z")
There doesn’t appear to be a single answer and the usages are all tangled together; e.g., “to check out” appears to derive from “getting the check.” But I think it’s all based on some form of “checking the tab or total” at the end of a meal or a stay or other situation where charges are listed on an open tab for the duration. ---
**Author:** ![moriah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b2d939/32.png) [@moriah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moriah)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/3 "2013-04-26T19:01:15Z")
[WORD HISTORY:](http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/check) The words check, chess, and shah are all related. Shah, as one might think, is a borrowing into English of the Persian title for the monarch of that country. The Persian word shh was also a term used in chess, a game played in Persia long before it was introduced to Europe. One said shh as a warning when the opponent’s king was under attack. The Persian word in this sense, after passing through Arabic, probably Old Spanish, and then Old French, came into Middle English as chek about seven hundred years ago. Chess itself comes from a plural form of the Old French word that gave us the word check. Checkmate, the next stage after check, goes back to the Arabic phrase shh mt, meaning “the king is dead.” Through a complex development having to do with senses that evolved from the notion of checking the king, check came to mean something used to ensure accuracy or authenticity. One such means was a counterfoil, a part of a check, for example, retained by the issuer as documentation of a transaction. Check first meant “counterfoil” and then came to mean anything, such as a bill or bank draft, with a counterfoilor eventually even without one. ---
**Author:** ![Recusant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/838e76/32.png) [@Recusant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Recusant)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/4 "2013-04-26T19:13:12Z")
Okay, that explains why it’s used as a substitute for ‘bill’. But why only in restaurants? ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/5 "2013-04-26T20:49:36Z")
Why is the bill you run up in a bar the only place it’s called a tab? (Probably from “tabulate,” meaning essentially the same thing as “[to] check.”) I think it’s just subtle evolution of the word usage, probably without a good or final explanation. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/6 "2013-04-26T21:24:14Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > Okay, that explains why it’s used as a substitute for ‘bill’. But why only in restaurants? And why only in America?\* Here in Britain we pay restaurant bills, the same as we pay electricity bills, gas bils, grocery bills, etc. \*Maybe it is not _only_ in America. I do not know what Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, etc. say they pay in a restaurant, but, it is plausible, because, in most cases, American English diverges further from British English than other versions of the language do, and most divergences in those other countries (Canada perhaps excepted) are in different directions from the American ones. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/7 "2013-04-26T21:40:57Z")
> [@Recusant](#): > > Okay, that explains why it’s used as a substitute for ‘bill’. But why only in restaurants? [Not the only legacy.](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=check&searchmode=none) > [@](#): > > Verb. “To arrest, stop;” then “to hold in restraint” (1620s); and finally “to hold up or control” (an assertion, a person, etc.) by comparison with some authority or record, 1690s. > > Hence, to check off (1839); to check up (1889); to check in or out (in a hotel, of a library book, etc.). To check out (something) “to look at, investigate” is from 1959. > > Noun. When the king is in check that player’s choices are severely limited. Hence, “sudden stoppage” (early 14c.), and by c.1700 to “a token of ownership used to check against, and prevent, loss or theft” (surviving in hat check) and “a check against forgery or alteration,” which gave the modern financial use of “bank check, money draft” (first recorded 1798 and often spelled cheque), probably influenced by exchequeur. Checking account is attested from 1897, American English. Blank check in the figurative sense attested by 1849. Checks and balances is from 1782, perhaps originally suggesting machinery. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/8 "2013-04-26T21:44:29Z")
The word _check_ used in restaurants is chiefly a U.S. invention of the 19th century. > [@OED](#): > > 1. A means to ensure accuracy, correctness, security from fraud, etc. > > †a. The counterfoil of a bank bill, draft, etc. > > b. A token, usually a memorandum of receipt, a ticket, or piece of metal duly stamped or numbered, used for the purpose of identification, or as evidence of ownership or title: given, e.g. to the owner of luggage on a railway (as in U.S.), or to one who temporarily leaves luggage, cloaks, portable articles, at the cloak-room of a railway-station, place of entertainment, etc., to enable him to identify and re-claim the same; to a person temporarily leaving a theatrical performance, or going upon the platform of a railway, to allow him to pass the gate-keeper again without payment; to a purchaser in a co-operative or other store as his voucher for a share in a dividend, etc., etc. > > c. A restaurant bill. Chiefly U.S. > > 1869 A. D. Whitney Patience Strong’s Outings 128, I let her settle for the dinner checks. > 1910 ‘O. Henry’ Strictly Business 192 Through an arched opening..you thrust your waiter’s check and the money. > 1916 Variety 27 Oct. 12/3 Inspectors..ordered drinks and paid their check just before one. > 1937 R. Stout Red Box vii. 88, I..found the waitress and got my check from her. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/9 "2013-04-26T22:19:13Z")
Hmm. So you’re saying that in Toronto, when I say “cheque please” (which I do), I’m really saying “check please”? That’s a real question. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/10 "2013-04-26T22:51:17Z")
> [@D18](#): > > Hmm. So you’re saying that in Toronto, when I say “cheque please” (which I do), I’m really saying “check please”? > > That’s a real question. Unless you’re playing chess. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [April 26, 2013, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/11 "2013-04-26T22:59:29Z")
Personally, I never ask for the “check” in the restaurant; it’s always the “bill”. Don’t know how typical that is for Canadian English. ---
**Author:** ![D18](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c57346/32.png) [@D18](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/D18)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/12 "2013-04-27T02:38:42Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > Personally, I never ask for the “check” in the restaurant; it’s always the “bill”. Don’t know how typical that is for Canadian English. Sure, in Regina. But in the big city . . . 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/13 "2013-04-27T03:27:25Z")
> [@D18](#): > > Sure, in Regina. But in the big city . . . 😉 Greater Toronto Area resident here. I always ask for the bill too. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 7:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/14 "2013-04-27T07:05:31Z")
I’m a US citizen and sometimes I ask for the bill, sometimes I ask for the check (when I have to ask, which is rare). Sometimes I just say, “we’re all finished eating now, and golly gee willigers we’re ready to go” which also gets the point across. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/15 "2013-04-27T08:30:05Z")
> [@samclem](#): > > The word _check_ used in restaurants is chiefly a U.S. invention of the 19th century. > … > > 1910 ‘O. Henry’ Strictly Business 192 Through an arched opening..you thrust your **waiter’s check** and the money. Which is perhaps a clue - “waiter’s check” is likely the device by which the waiter checked your order, probably in all aspects: its ordering, delivery and payment. ---
**Author:** ![bienville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@bienville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bienville)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/16 "2013-04-27T08:48:34Z")
Restaurants are pretty much the only place I can think of where people commonly use sign lanuage to ask to settle their balance. The handy air waved “check mark” delivered with a flourish upon achieving eye contact with the waiter is a perfectly respectable gesture. If we called it a “bill” we would be forced, we would have no other options, we would be forced to make eye contact with the waiter then contort a “duck face” (to signify “bill”). This is a wholely buffoonish expression to be making in polite company. I am therefore thankful for use of the term “check”. ---
**Author:** ![ctnguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@ctnguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ctnguy)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 9:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/17 "2013-04-27T09:45:21Z")
Here, in a part of the world where we call it a bill and not a check, we signal for the bill with a hand motion that imitates signing something with an invisible pen. Presumably it refers to signing the credit card slip, although in the era of Chip-and-PIN one doesn’t actually have to sign any more. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 10:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/18 "2013-04-27T10:34:34Z")
> [@ctnguy](#): > > Here, in a part of the world where we call it a bill and not a check, we signal for the bill with a hand motion that imitates signing something with an invisible pen. Presumably it refers to signing the credit card slip, although in the era of Chip-and-PIN one doesn’t actually have to sign any more. I have a feeling that the “hand flourish” for “check/bill, please” predates credit cards, and therefore must have developed first in the US, signifying the “check mark,” and wasn’t adopted in “bill” countries until after credit cards became common. But this is GQ, so feelings don’t count! Anyone have the facts? ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 11:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/19 "2013-04-27T11:49:44Z")
On language variety, I’m currently in Japan for the first time, and I’ve found that the term used here is チェック (chekku) for a restaurant bill. Doubtless that was borrowed from American English. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [April 27, 2013, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778/20 "2013-04-27T14:25:20Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > I have a feeling that the “hand flourish” for “check/bill, please” predates credit cards, and therefore must have developed first in the US, signifying the “check mark,” and wasn’t adopted in “bill” countries until after credit cards became common. > > But this is GQ, so feelings don’t count! Anyone have the facts? In the olden days, 19th century style, only the fairly well-to-do could afford to have dinners of any kind. Poor people ate at home or lived in boardinghouses that served meals. Therefore, anyone rich enough to eat out was rich enough to be trustworthy. And rich enough not to have to be bothered by pulling out money and counting it at the table or, worse, squabbling about who ordered what and splitting the bill, indicating a lack of wealth. The payee would be presented with a slip for the total of the meal, which was signed with a flourish with a gaudy fountain pen. Then at the end of the month the restaurant would send over a bill to be paid, usually by check, just like any other service. This accounts for calling the tab a “bill,” a “check,” and for the hand-signing gesture. (Not necessarily completely; it was no doubt reinforced by other usages.) We still see vestiges of it when you stay at a hotel and sign the check to your room number and to the later practice of running a tab at a bar. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-restaurant-bills-called-checks/656778.md?page=2)