Talk:Blank cheque

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Relevancy to carte blanche

Is this page really relevant for carte blanche?, which as I understood things referred to a persons ability or authority to do anything he/she pleased. A blank cheque is similar in principle but can only refer to financial outlay.

Also, I thought the origin of the carte blanche phrase was during the french revolution when it was a travel permit allowing the holder to go wherever they pleased. I can't remember where I heard this though. So the blank cheque comparison doesn't sit quite right. Leithp 10:46, 27 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

A quick search seems to reveal that this was all in my imagination. It seems to have originated as a French phrase for unconditional surrender, and I'll try not to make any jokes about that. Leithp 13:50, 27 May 2005 (UTC)[reply]

I thought that the term Carte Blanche came from a practice in France where under limited circumstances the king would give a powerful person a White Card with the royal seal (proof of issuance from the king) that said (roughly) "What this man has done, he has done for the good of France." Thus, one who was able to secure a CB would be able to assassinate an opponent with impunity. I could be wrong about it. But I do think that a carte blanche is completely seperate from a blank check. Generally, "Carte Blanche" implies unlimited permission, whilst "Blank Check" implies unlimited funding.

Yes, but "blank check" also means unlimited permission by generalization from just the literal monetary sense of the term. 68.114.222.95 06:04, 23 Nov 2005 (UTC)

In the Sherlock Holmes stories, when someone who is royalty, or just plain wealthy, hires Holmes to investigate or accomplish something, they will sometimes say something like "You have carte blanche", roughly meaning "whatever expenses you incur during this case, no matter how much, will be covered by me." I wanted to edit the main page of this article to reflect that meaning, but I couldn't figure out how to phrase it, or which section to put it in. It's sort of half-way between the literal and metaphorical meanings. Perhaps we need a disambiguation page, or a new article for the various meanings of the phrase "carte blanche" rather than just having it be part of the "Blank check" article... and shouldn't that be "cheque" anyway? Ugliness Man 13:28, 16 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"...cheque anyway?" British/American variation in spelling is usually a first come first served affair. Meaning the original author gets to choose how to spell words like color, odor, or fertilisation. Spellings are only changed after lengthy and sometimes heated debate (see aluminium).--TheLimbicOne(talk) 01:48, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

68.114.222.95 has a valid point. Blank check does have a broader interpretation than just financial (when not used in a Sherlock Holmes novel). --TheLimbicOne(talk) 01:48, 18 January 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Poor grammar

Please, someone clean up this mess! Lindenb 08:38, 25 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Spellings

Per the manual of style, one spelling of the word cheque/check should be adopted throughout the article. While most of the article uses the "que" version, the title is the "ck" version. Opinions? Unless someone wants to move the article, or sees something I don't, I'll go ahead and standardize it to the "ck" version in a couple of days if no one objects. Goodnight mush^Talk 23:20, 8 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, if there's no objection, I'm going to change it to "cheque" and move the article. The consensus at cheque uses that spelling, so it would seem to make sense to mirror that spelling here. Thoughts? --Ckatz^chat _spy 21:59, 20 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I added the "USA" reference because, well, it's never "cheque" here unless it's some brands of traveler's cheques! 207.210.134.83 (talk) 19:20, 28 December 2014 (UTC)[reply]

Short description

Quisqualis, I shortened the SD because the target is 40 characters. The prior one was around 60, and it did not even align with the main topic of the article - per the hatnote, the article is about the metaphor. The long SD was about the literal meaning, which is just stated in the beginning of the article as an introduction to explain the metaphor. SDs can be imprecise, they just need to tell the reader they are at the right article (just like the hatnote "This article is about the metaphor"). MB 03:17, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

You make a good case. I'll revert myself.--Quisqualis (talk) 03:20, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

"Carte blanche" listed at Redirects for discussion

A discussion is taking place to address the redirect Carte blanche. The discussion will occur at Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2021 June 8#Carte blanche until a consensus is reached, and readers of this page are welcome to contribute to the discussion. Shhhnotsoloud (talk) 07:25, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]