chase

\ \ There are two distinct words chase in English, although they may come from the same ultimate source. The commoner, and older, ‘pursue’ [13], comes via Old French chacier from Vulgar Latin *captiāre (which also produced Anglo-Norman cachier, source of English catch). This was an alteration of Latin captāre ‘try to seize’, which was formed from captus, the past participle of capere ‘take’ (source of a wide range of English words, including capture, capable, and cater, and distantly related to heave). The other, ‘engrave’ [14], may come from Old French chas ‘enclosure’, which in turn came from Latin capsa ‘box’ (source of English case and related ultimately to Latin capere). The semantic connection would seem to be between putting a jewel in its setting, or ‘enclosure’, and decorating jewellery or precious metal by other means such as engraving or embossing.

\ \ Cf.⇒ CAPABLE, CAPTURE, CASE, CATCH, CATER, HEAVE, PURCHASE