Online Etymology Dictionary

Chartres: cathedral city in central France, said to be named for the Carnutes, Gaulish people who had a sacred place there, whose name is said to be from a root meaning "rock, stone," but there is a famous "Druid Stone" at the church.
chartreuse (n.): type of liqueur, 1866, from la Grande-Chartreuse, chief monastery of the Carthusian order, which was founded 11c. and named for the massif de la Chartreuse (Medieval Latin Carthusianus) mountain group in the French Alps, where its first monastery was built. The liqueur recipe dates from early 17c.; the original now marketed as Les Pères Chartreux. The color (1884) is so called from resemblance to the pale apple-green hue of the best type of the liqueur.
chartulary (n.): "collection of charters," from Medieval Latin chartularium, from Latin chartula (see charter (n.)).
charwoman (n.): 1590s, from Middle English char, cherre "turn of work" (see chore) + woman. An Alicia Charwoman appears in the Borough of Nottingham records in 1379.
chary (adj.): Old English cearig "sorrowful" (see care (n.)). Sense evolved 16c. from "full of care" to "careful." Cognate with Old Saxon carag, Old High German charag "sorrow, trouble, care." Related: Charily; chariness.
Charybdis: whirlpool off the coast of Sicily, from Latinized form of Greek Kharybdis, which is of unknown origin. Compare Scylla.
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 (source of Italian cacciare, Catalan casar, Spanish cazar, Portuguese caçar "to chase, hunt;" see catch (v.)).

Meaning "run after" developed mid-14c. Related: Chased; chasing. Older European words for "pursue" often also cover "persecute" (Greek dioko, Old English ehtan); modern ones often derive from words used primarily for the hunting of animals.
chase (n.1): mid-13c., chace, "a hunt," from Old French chace "a hunt, a chase; hunting ground" (12c.), from chacier (see chase (v.)). Meaning "a pursuit" (of an enemy, etc.) is early 14c.
chase (n.2): "bore of a gun barrel," 1640s, from French chas "eye of a needle; enclosure," from Vulgar Latin *capsum, variant of Latin capsa "box" (see case (n.2)).
chaser (n.): c. 1300, "horse trained for chasing," agent noun from chase (v.), probably in some cases from Old French chaceor "huntsman, hunter." Meaning "water or mild beverage taken after a strong drink" is 1897, U.S. colloquial. French had chasse (from chasser "to chase") "a drink of liquor taken (or said to be taken) to kill the aftertaste of coffee or tobacco," used in English from c. 1800.
chasm (n.): 1590s, "deep crack in the earth," from Latin chasma, from Greek khasma "yawning hollow, gulf," related to khaskein "to yawn," and thus to chaos. In English in 17c. often spelled chasma. Figurative use from 1640s. Related: Chasmal; chasmic.
chasse (n.): from French chassé "chase, chasing," past participle of chasser "to chase, hunt" (see chase (v.)); borrowed 19c. in a variety of senses and expressions, such as "chaser" (in the drinking sense), short for chasse-café, literally "coffee-chaser." Also as a dance step (1867).
chassepot (n.): bolt-action breechloading rifle used by French forces in the Franco-Prussian War, 1870, named for French inventor Antonine-Alphonse Chassepot (1833-1905).
chasseur (n.): mobile foot-soldier, 1796, French, literally "huntsman," from Old French chaceor "huntsman, hunter," from chacier "to chase" (see chase (v.)).
chassis (n.): "base frame of an automobile," 1903, American English; earlier "window frame" (1660s), from French châssis "frame," Old French chassiz (13c.) "frame, framework, setting," from chasse "case, box, eye socket, snail's shell, setting (of a jewel)," from Latin capsa "box, case;" see case (n.2) + French -is, collective suffix for a number of parts taken together. Compare sash (n.2).
chaste (adj.): c. 1200, "virtuous, pure from unlawful sexual intercourse" (as defined by the Church), from Old French chaste "morally pure" (12c.), from Latin castus "clean, pure, morally pure" (see caste). Transferred sense of "sexually pure" is by 15c., perhaps by influence of chastity, though chaste as a noun meaning "virgin person" is recorded from early 14c. Related: Chastely.
chasten (v.): 1520s, with -en (1) + the word it replaced, obsolete verb chaste "to correct (someone's) behavior" (Middle English chastien, c. 1200), from Old French chastiier "to punish" (see chastise). Related: Chastened; chastening.
chastise (v.): c. 1300, chastisen, from Old French chastiier "to warn, advise, instruct; chastise, admonish; punish; dominate, tame" (12c., Modern French châtier), from Latin castigare "to set or keep right, to reprove, chasten, to punish," literally "to make pure" (see castigate). Or perhaps from Middle English chastien (see chasten) + -ise, though this would be early for such a native formation. The form of the modern word "is not easily accounted for" [OED]. Related: Chastised; chastising.
He alone may chastise who loves. [Rabindranath Tagore, "The Crescent Moon," 1913]
chastisement (n.): c. 1300, from chastise + -ment.
chastity (n.): c. 1200, chastete, "sexual purity" (as defined by the Church), including but not limited to virginity or celibacy, from Old French chastete "chastity, purity" (12c., Modern French chasteté), from Latin castitatem (nominative castitas) "purity, chastity" from castus (see caste).
Chastity is merely a social law created to encourage the alliances that most promote the permanent welfare of the race, and to maintain woman in a social position which it is thought advisable she should hold. ["Saturday Review," Aug. 10, 1867, quoted in Lecky, "European Morals," 1869]
chasuble (n.): ecclesiastical vestment, c. 1300, cheisible, from Old French chesible (12c., Modern French chasuble), from Medieval Latin casubla, from Late Latin *casubula, unexplained alteration of Latin casula "a little hut," diminutive of casa "cottage, house" (see casino), used by c. 400 in transferred sense of "outer garment." From the notion that hooded garments resembled or suggested little houses. The English form conformed to French from c. 1600.
chat (v.): mid-15c., "talk idly, babble," short for chatter (v.). Meaning "to converse familiarly" is from 1550s. Sense of "flirt with, ingratiate oneself with" (in later use often with up (adv.)) is from 1898. Related: Chatted; chatting.
chat (n.): 1520s, "chatter, frivolous talk;" see chat (v.). Meaning "familiar conversation" is from 1570s. Chat show, for what in U.S. is a talk show, attested from 1969. Chat room in the online sense is attested by 1994, from the days when AOL ruled the Web.
chateau (n.): c. 1739, from French château, from Old French chastel (12c.), from Latin castellum "castle" (see castle (n.)).
chateaubriand (n.): "grilled beef steak, garnished with herbs," 1877, named, for some reason, for French writer François René, Vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768-1848).
chatelaine (n.): 1845, from French châtelaine "a female castellan; wife of a castellan; mistress of a castle or country house;" fem. of châtelain, from Old French chastelain "owner and lord of a castle, castellan, nobleman," from chastel (see chateau). In fashion, as a type of ornamental belt, from 1851; supposed to resemble a chain of keys.
Chattahoochee: river between Georgia and Alabama, from Muskogee cato-hocce hvcce "marked-rock river," from cvto "rock," hocce "marked" + hvcce "stream."
Chattanooga: city in Tennessee, of uncertain origin, said to be either Cherokee or Muskogee; compare Muskogee cvto "rock" (in Chattahoochee, etc.); the entire name is said to mean "rock rising to a point," which might describe nearby Lookout Mountain.
chattel (n.): early 13c., chatel "property, goods," from Old French chatel "chattels, goods, wealth, possessions, property; profit; cattle," from Late Latin capitale "property" (see cattle, which is the Old North French form of the same word). Application to slaves (1640s) is a rhetorical figure of abolitionists, etc.
chatter (v.): early 13c., chateren "to twitter, gossip," earlier cheateren, chiteren, of echoic origin. Compare Dutch koeteren "jabber," Danish kvidre "twitter, chirp." Related: Chattered; chattering. Phrase chattering class in use by 1893, with a reference perhaps from 1843:
Such was the most interesting side of the fatal event to that idle chattering class of London life to whom the collision of heaven and earth were important only as affording matter for "news!" [Catherine Grace F. Gore ("Mrs. Gore"), "The Banker's Wife," 1843]
chatter (n.): mid-13c., originally of birds, from chatter (v.).
chatterbox (n.): 1774, from chatter (n.) + box (n.1).
chatty (adj.): "fond of chatting," 1746, from chat + -y (2). Related: Chattily; chattiness.
Chaucer: family name, from Old French chaucier "maker of chausses," from chauces "clothing for the legs, breeches, pantaloons, hose" (related to case (n.2)). Middle English chawce was a general term for anything worn on the feet. Related: Chaucerian.
chauffer (n.): "small portable stove," 1825, variant of chafer "a vessel for heating," agent noun from chafe; form influenced by French chauffoir "a heater," from chauffer "to heat," which also is ultimately from chafe (see chauffeur).
chauffeur (n.): 1896, originally "a motorist," from French chauffeur, literally "stoker," operator of a steam engine, French nickname for early motorists, from chauffer "to heat," from Old French chaufer "to heat, warm up; to become hot" (see chafe). The first motor-cars were steam-driven. Sense of "professional or paid driver of a private motor car" is from 1902.
The '95 Duryea wagon, which won the Chicago contest Fall, was exhibited at the Detroit Horse Show last week. Charles B. King, treasurer of the American Motor League, acted as "chauffeur," as the French say. ["The Horseless Age," April 1896]
chauffeur (v.): 1902, from chauffeur (n.). Related: Chauffeured; chauffeuring.
Chautauqua: "assembly for popular education," 1873, from town in New York, U.S., where an annual Methodist summer colony featured lectures. The name is from ja'dahgweh, a Seneca (Iroquoian) name, possibly "one has taken out fish there," but an alternative suggested meaning is "raised body."
chauvinism (n.): 1840, "exaggerated, blind nationalism; patriotism degenerated into a vice," from French chauvinisme (1839), from the character Nicholas Chauvin, soldier of Napoleon's Grand Armee, notoriously attached to the Empire long after it was history, in the Cogniards' popular 1831 vaudeville "La Cocarde Tricolore." Meaning extended to "sexism" via male chauvinism (1969).

The name is a French form of Latin Calvinus and thus Calvinism and chauvinism are, etymologically, twins. The name was a common one in Napoleon's army, and if there was a real person at the base of the character in the play, he has not been certainly identified by etymologists, though memoirs of Waterloo (one published in Paris in 1822) mention "one of our principal piqueurs, named Chauvin, who had returned with Napoleon from Elba," which implies loyalty.
chauvinist (n.): 1877, from French chauviniste, from Chauvin (see chauvinism). Related: Chauvinistic (1870).
chav (n.): "antisocial youth," British slang, by 2004, apparently from earlier charver "loutish young person wearing designer-style sportswear," Northern British slang (1997) of uncertain origin. Earlier it was a verb in homosexual slang for "have sex." Perhaps ultimately from Romany (Gypsy).
chaw (v.): 1520s, unexplained phonetic variant of chew (v.). OED points out the variant form chow was "very common in 16-17th c." Bartlett's "Dictionary of Americanisms" [1859] says chaw, "Although found in good authors, ... is retained, in this country as in England, only by the illiterate." Related: Chawed; chawing. The noun meaning "that which is chewed" (especially a quid of tobacco) first recorded 1709.
Che: nickname of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Ernesto Guevara (1928-1967), acquired when he was working with Cuban exiles in Guatemala in mid-1950s, from his dialectal use of Argentine che, a slang filler word in speech.
cheap (adj.): "low in price, that may be bought at small cost," c. 1500, ultimately from Old English noun ceap "traffic, a purchase," from ceapian (v.) "trade," probably from an early Germanic borrowing from Latin caupo "petty tradesman, huckster" (see chapman).

The sense evolution is from the noun meaning "a barter, a purchase" to "a purchase as rated by the buyer," hence adjectival meaning "inexpensive," the main modern sense, via Middle English phrases such as god chep "favorable bargain" (12c., a translation of French a bon marché).

Sense of "lightly esteemed, common" is from 1590s (compare similar evolution of Latin vilis). The meaning "low in price" was represented in Old English by undeor, literally "un-dear" (but deop ceap, literally "deep cheap," meant "high price").

The word also was used in Old English for "market" (as in ceapdæg "market day"), a sense surviving in place names Cheapside, East Cheap, etc. Related: Cheaply. Expression on the cheap is first attested 1888. Cheap shot originally was U.S. football jargon for a head-on tackle; extended sense "unfair hit" in politics, etc. is by 1970. German billig "cheap" is from Middle Low German billik, originally "fair, just," with a sense evolution via billiger preis "fair price," etc.
cheapen (v.): 1570s, "ask the price of," from cheap (adj.) + -en (1). Meaning "lower the price of" is from 1833, but figuratively, "to lower in estimation" is from 1650s. Related: Cheapened; cheapening.
cheapie (n.): "something inexpensive," 1891, from cheap (adj.) + -ie.
cheaply (adv.): 1550s, from cheap (adj.) + -ly (2).
cheapo (adj.): 1967, from cheap (adj.) + -o.
cheapskate (n.): also cheap skate, "miserly person," 1896, from cheap (adj.), second element perhaps from American English slang skate "worn-out horse" (1894), which is of uncertain origin.
chear: obsolete spelling of cheer (n.).