Acted dishonestly or unfairly to gain an advantage, or to trick someone out of something they deserve.
From Old French 'chete,' originally a legal term for confiscation or forfeiture. The meaning shifted to mean deceiving someone illegally by the 1300s.
The word originally meant seizing property through legal trickery—so a cheater was once a legal professional! Over time it became a general word for any unfair trick, showing how language tracks moral attitudes changing.
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