Draughtsmen, Draughts.
1825. They think I go there to play checkers with him.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ i. 385. (N.E.D.)
1870. Out of blocks, thread-spools, cards and checkers, he will build his pyramid with the gravity of Palladio.—Emerson, ‘Society and Solitude, Domestic Life,’ vi. 88. (N.E.D.)
1883. In the dark he had built up a little tower of checkermen and figs combined, which held the backgammon board a little open.—E. E. Hale, ‘Dick’s Christmas,’ Harper’s Mag., lxvi. p. 278 (Dec.). (N.E.D.)
1910. It seems inconceivable that two men can be kept steadily employed the year round making checkers. Yet that is what is done in a mill at Bethel. The average output of checkers from the mill is 800 barrels. It has been as high as 1,000 and down to 600, but 800 is the average. This does not sound very large, but when the figures are worked out it is found to be a lot. In every barrel shipped there are 30,000 checkers of the ordinary size, while in 800 barrels there are 28,800,000, or 1,200,000 sets of twenty-four checkers each. That is to say, with the output of this Maine mill 2,400,000 persons could be playing checkers at the same time.—Kennebec (Me.) Journal, April.
*** The scaccarium or chequer-board is of great antiquity, but draughtsmen are rarely called checkers in the United Kingdom.
