Etymology Dictionary

JEOPARDY,  hazard, peril, danger.  (F.,—L.)   M.E. jupartie, later ieopardy or jeopardy.   'Hath lost his owen good thurgh jupartie;'  Chaucer, C.T. 16211.   The various readings in this line are Iupartie, Iopardy, Iopardye, and Iepardye; Six-text, G. 743.   Spelt jeopardie, Chaucer, Troilus, ii. 465; iv. 1529.   The original sense was a game in which the chances are even, a game of hazard, hence hazard or chance; as in:  'To put that sikernes in jeopardie' = to put in hazard that which is secure (last reference).—O.F. jeu parti, lit. a divided game.   'A jeu parti is properly a game, in which the chances are exactly even.   See Froissart, v. i. c. 234; Ils n’estoient pas à jeu parti contre les François [= for they were unequal in numbers to the French (Johnes' translation)]:  and vol. ii. c. 9, si nous les voyons à jeu parti.   From hence it signifies anything uncertain or hazardous.   In the old French poetry, the discussion of a problem where much might be said on both sides, was called a jeu parti.   See Poesies du Roy de Navarre, chanson xlviii.'—Tyrwhitt's note to Chaucer, C.T. 16211.—Low Lat. iocus partitus, an alternative, a phrase used when a choice was given, of choosing one side or the other; see Ducange.—Lat. iocus, a joke, jest, sport, play, game; and partitus, divided, pp. of partiri, to part, from part-, stem of pars, a part.   See Joke and Part.   Der. jeopard, to hazard (coined by dropping -y), Judges, v. 18, M.E. jeoparden, Chaucer, Troil. iv. 1566; jeopardise, vb., suggested by M.E. jeopardise, sb., Chaucer, Book of the Duchesse, 666; also jeopard-ous, spelt ieopardeous in Hall's Chron. Hen. VIII, an. 25 (R.); jeopardous-ly.   ¶ Observe the diphthong eo, representing the F. eu.