Etymology: Middle English iuparti, etc., < Old French iu parti, later ieu (geu) parti, lit. ‘divided play or game, even game’, hence ‘uncertain chance, uncertainty’, originally a term of chess and similar games, in medieval Latin jocus partitus, Catalan joch partit, Spanish juego de partido. It has been suggested that the English change of -parti to -pardy was partly influenced by association with French perdre to lose, but it was evidently mainly phonetic, like the occasional change of p to b in jubertie, joberdie, jeobardie, etc. Johnson says erroneously ‘a word not now in use’; it was in continuous use during the 18th cent.

Etymology: < jeopardy n.