Comments on: Kite http://www.word-detective.com/2007/06/kite/ Semper Ubi Sub Ubi Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:32:55 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: The Party of the First Part http://www.word-detective.com/2007/06/kite/comment-page-1/#comment-80 The Party of the First Part Sun, 24 Jun 2007 22:52:09 +0000 http://word-detective.com/wordpress/?p=82#comment-80 The OED puts the first recorded use of "kite" as a verb relating to checks as 1839 which agrees with your chronology. Despite this long-standing aerial metaphor, people who kite checks are said to be taking advantage of the "float", which is a watery metaphor for the lapse of time between the deposit of a check in one bank and its collection in another. Nowadays, this lapse is only a couple of days, but what exciting days! The funds are floating, the checks are flying – and the IRS is probably planning an amphibious assault. By the way, did you know that "check" originally comes from Persian and is related to the check of "checkmate?" I could go on for hours, but then, I am a lawyer. The OED puts the first recorded use of “kite” as a verb relating to checks as 1839 which agrees with your chronology. Despite this long-standing aerial metaphor, people who kite checks are said to be taking advantage of the “float”, which is a watery metaphor for the lapse of time between the deposit of a check in one bank and its collection in another. Nowadays, this lapse is only a couple of days, but what exciting days! The funds are floating, the checks are flying – and the IRS is probably planning an amphibious assault.

By the way, did you know that “check” originally comes from Persian and is related to the check of “checkmate?” I could go on for hours, but then, I am a lawyer.

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