Chase is the Parisian twin of catch. Both descend from Vulgar Latin captiare, "to try to seize," from capere, "to take," but chase came through central Old French chacier while catch came through the Norman form cachier, which kept the harder k sound. English borrowed both and gave them different work — a difference of French dialect frozen into a difference of English meaning.
The word arrived about 1300 meaning specifically to hunt, and it took the hunting sense over from catch as the two settled their territory. The generalised sense of running after anything followed by the mid-1300s. In Middle English chase could also mean "to persecute," which is less of a leap than it sounds: words for pursuit across European languages tend to cover persecution too, and most of them started out as words for hunting animals.
chase (v.) c. 1300, chacen "to hunt; to cause to go away; put to flight," from Old French chacier "to hunt, ride swiftly, strive for" (12c., Modern French chasser ), from Vulgar Latin *captiare "try to seize, chase" (source of Italian cacciare , Catalan casar , Spanish cazar , Portuguese caçar "to chase, hunt"), from Latin captare "to take, hold," frequentative of capere "to take, hold" (from PIE root *kap- "to grasp"). The Old French word is a variant of cacier , cachier , making chase a doublet of catch (v.). The meaning "run after" for any purpose is by mid-14c. Related: Chased ; chasing . Ancient European words for "pursue" often also cover "persecute" (Greek di ō k ō , Old English ehtan ), and in Middle English chase also meant "to persecute." Many modern "chase" words often derive from verbs used primarily for the hunting of animals. also from c. 1300 chase (n.1) mid-13c., chace , "a hunt, a pursuit (of a wild animal) for the purpose of capturing and killing," from Old French chace "a hunt, a chase; hunting ground" (12c.), from chacier (see chase (v.)). The meaning "a pursuit" (of an enemy, etc.) is from early 14c. The sense of "occupation or pastime of hunting wild animals" is from early 14c.; the meaning "group of hunters pursuing game" is from 1811. The sense of "piece of privately owned open ground preserved for animals to be hunted" is from mid-15c. also from mid-13c. chase (n.2) "groove cut into any object," 1610s, from French chas "enclosure, enclosed space," from Vulgar Latin *capsum , from Latin capere "to take, receive, contain" (from PIE root *kap- "to grasp"). The meaning "bore of a gun barrel" is from 1640s. also from 1610s
chase came in through Norman French, and its spelling follows that family's conventions.
How that family writes these sounds
| /tʃ/ | chchamber, charge, chase, chief |
What gives it away on the page
| ch said as /tʃ/ | Early French loans; later French loans say /ʃ/ instead (see below).chamber, chase, charge, chief |
Norman French in the spelling guide · guess another word's family