Origin of the chess term “checkmate”
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An attack on a king is called "check", why is an attack that guarantees the capture of a king called checkmate? What is the origin?
etymology
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
add a comment |
up vote
12
down vote
favorite
An attack on a king is called "check", why is an attack that guarantees the capture of a king called checkmate? What is the origin?
etymology
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
Good additional reference on Chess History
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:11
add a comment |
up vote
12
down vote
favorite
up vote
12
down vote
favorite
An attack on a king is called "check", why is an attack that guarantees the capture of a king called checkmate? What is the origin?
etymology
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
An attack on a king is called "check", why is an attack that guarantees the capture of a king called checkmate? What is the origin?
etymology
etymology
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
edited Oct 11 '16 at 5:35
NVZ
20.8k1359110
20.8k1359110
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
asked May 18 '11 at 4:41
Louis Rhys
1,55872737
1,55872737
Good additional reference on Chess History
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:11
add a comment |
Good additional reference on Chess History
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:11
Good additional reference on Chess History
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:11
Good additional reference on Chess History
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:11
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
From Etymonline:
checkmate
mid-14c., from O.Fr. eschec mat, from Arabic shah mat "the king died" (see check (n.)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Hence Persian shah mat, the ultimate source of the word, would be literally "the king is left helpless, the king is stumped." As a verb, from late 14c.
Here is a nicer description from word-orgins.com
Checkmate (14th c.) comes via Old French eschec mat from Persian shāh māt ‘the king is left helpless’ ... From the very specific chess sense there developed more general applications such as ‘attack’, ‘arrest’, ‘stop’, ‘restrict’, and ‘verify’. Among these in the 18th century was ‘token used as a counterfoil for verifying something, such as an amount’. As check this survives mainly in American English (as in ‘hat-check’)
Check as in ‘pattern of squares’ (14th c.) is probably short for chequer, which in turn is a reduced form of exchequer, a word derived ultimately from Vulgar Latin *scaccus.
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
1
so check just means "king"?
– Louis Rhys
May 18 '11 at 4:46
Check comes from a Persian phrase 'shah' (king) where 'shah mata / shah mat' meant 'the king is dead' or 'the king is helpless'. I believe this is actually the Persian gameplay terminology over 1000 years ago before Europeans really caught onto it.
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:07
2
Interestingly, that became "scacco matto" in Italian... although matto means mad in Italian!
– nico
May 18 '11 at 6:09
2
In Swedish, it's "schack matt", which is pretty close to the original. Cool. (Chess is actually called Schack, fwiw..)
– Macke
May 18 '11 at 11:52
1
I find the etymology at word origins (the nicer description) questionable because of the reference to Vulgar Latin. It says check < eschequier (Old French) < eschec < scaccus (Vulgar Latin) < shah (Arabic) < shah (Persian). I don't know what scaccus means exactly (does the '' means it is reconstructed but not extant?), but Vulgar Latin is the name of the colloquial Latin at the time of the Roman Empire ... did the game of chess even exist then, and were there borrowings from Arabic at that time?
– Mitch
May 18 '11 at 14:31
|
show 3 more comments
up vote
2
down vote
Check comes from Arabic "Sheikh"; mate comes from "mat". Together the two Arabic words mean the sheikh or master or even king is dead, which signifies the end of a game of chess.
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
Or maybe it comes from the Arabic shahu-ka mat, literally, 'your king is dead'. (Shah is king, the ka suffix means 'your', and as the previous commentators have said, 'mat' means 'died'.
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
That's an interesting suggestion. Can you find any on- or off-line sources to help it out a bit?
– Brian Hooper
Sep 17 '15 at 12:02
add a comment |
protected by MetaEd♦ Dec 3 at 19:19
Thank you for your interest in this question.
Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
From Etymonline:
checkmate
mid-14c., from O.Fr. eschec mat, from Arabic shah mat "the king died" (see check (n.)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Hence Persian shah mat, the ultimate source of the word, would be literally "the king is left helpless, the king is stumped." As a verb, from late 14c.
Here is a nicer description from word-orgins.com
Checkmate (14th c.) comes via Old French eschec mat from Persian shāh māt ‘the king is left helpless’ ... From the very specific chess sense there developed more general applications such as ‘attack’, ‘arrest’, ‘stop’, ‘restrict’, and ‘verify’. Among these in the 18th century was ‘token used as a counterfoil for verifying something, such as an amount’. As check this survives mainly in American English (as in ‘hat-check’)
Check as in ‘pattern of squares’ (14th c.) is probably short for chequer, which in turn is a reduced form of exchequer, a word derived ultimately from Vulgar Latin *scaccus.
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
1
so check just means "king"?
– Louis Rhys
May 18 '11 at 4:46
Check comes from a Persian phrase 'shah' (king) where 'shah mata / shah mat' meant 'the king is dead' or 'the king is helpless'. I believe this is actually the Persian gameplay terminology over 1000 years ago before Europeans really caught onto it.
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:07
2
Interestingly, that became "scacco matto" in Italian... although matto means mad in Italian!
– nico
May 18 '11 at 6:09
2
In Swedish, it's "schack matt", which is pretty close to the original. Cool. (Chess is actually called Schack, fwiw..)
– Macke
May 18 '11 at 11:52
1
I find the etymology at word origins (the nicer description) questionable because of the reference to Vulgar Latin. It says check < eschequier (Old French) < eschec < scaccus (Vulgar Latin) < shah (Arabic) < shah (Persian). I don't know what scaccus means exactly (does the '' means it is reconstructed but not extant?), but Vulgar Latin is the name of the colloquial Latin at the time of the Roman Empire ... did the game of chess even exist then, and were there borrowings from Arabic at that time?
– Mitch
May 18 '11 at 14:31
|
show 3 more comments
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
From Etymonline:
checkmate
mid-14c., from O.Fr. eschec mat, from Arabic shah mat "the king died" (see check (n.)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Hence Persian shah mat, the ultimate source of the word, would be literally "the king is left helpless, the king is stumped." As a verb, from late 14c.
Here is a nicer description from word-orgins.com
Checkmate (14th c.) comes via Old French eschec mat from Persian shāh māt ‘the king is left helpless’ ... From the very specific chess sense there developed more general applications such as ‘attack’, ‘arrest’, ‘stop’, ‘restrict’, and ‘verify’. Among these in the 18th century was ‘token used as a counterfoil for verifying something, such as an amount’. As check this survives mainly in American English (as in ‘hat-check’)
Check as in ‘pattern of squares’ (14th c.) is probably short for chequer, which in turn is a reduced form of exchequer, a word derived ultimately from Vulgar Latin *scaccus.
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
1
so check just means "king"?
– Louis Rhys
May 18 '11 at 4:46
Check comes from a Persian phrase 'shah' (king) where 'shah mata / shah mat' meant 'the king is dead' or 'the king is helpless'. I believe this is actually the Persian gameplay terminology over 1000 years ago before Europeans really caught onto it.
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:07
2
Interestingly, that became "scacco matto" in Italian... although matto means mad in Italian!
– nico
May 18 '11 at 6:09
2
In Swedish, it's "schack matt", which is pretty close to the original. Cool. (Chess is actually called Schack, fwiw..)
– Macke
May 18 '11 at 11:52
1
I find the etymology at word origins (the nicer description) questionable because of the reference to Vulgar Latin. It says check < eschequier (Old French) < eschec < scaccus (Vulgar Latin) < shah (Arabic) < shah (Persian). I don't know what scaccus means exactly (does the '' means it is reconstructed but not extant?), but Vulgar Latin is the name of the colloquial Latin at the time of the Roman Empire ... did the game of chess even exist then, and were there borrowings from Arabic at that time?
– Mitch
May 18 '11 at 14:31
|
show 3 more comments
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
up vote
8
down vote
accepted
From Etymonline:
checkmate
mid-14c., from O.Fr. eschec mat, from Arabic shah mat "the king died" (see check (n.)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Hence Persian shah mat, the ultimate source of the word, would be literally "the king is left helpless, the king is stumped." As a verb, from late 14c.
Here is a nicer description from word-orgins.com
Checkmate (14th c.) comes via Old French eschec mat from Persian shāh māt ‘the king is left helpless’ ... From the very specific chess sense there developed more general applications such as ‘attack’, ‘arrest’, ‘stop’, ‘restrict’, and ‘verify’. Among these in the 18th century was ‘token used as a counterfoil for verifying something, such as an amount’. As check this survives mainly in American English (as in ‘hat-check’)
Check as in ‘pattern of squares’ (14th c.) is probably short for chequer, which in turn is a reduced form of exchequer, a word derived ultimately from Vulgar Latin *scaccus.
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
From Etymonline:
checkmate
mid-14c., from O.Fr. eschec mat, from Arabic shah mat "the king died" (see check (n.)), which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Hence Persian shah mat, the ultimate source of the word, would be literally "the king is left helpless, the king is stumped." As a verb, from late 14c.
Here is a nicer description from word-orgins.com
Checkmate (14th c.) comes via Old French eschec mat from Persian shāh māt ‘the king is left helpless’ ... From the very specific chess sense there developed more general applications such as ‘attack’, ‘arrest’, ‘stop’, ‘restrict’, and ‘verify’. Among these in the 18th century was ‘token used as a counterfoil for verifying something, such as an amount’. As check this survives mainly in American English (as in ‘hat-check’)
Check as in ‘pattern of squares’ (14th c.) is probably short for chequer, which in turn is a reduced form of exchequer, a word derived ultimately from Vulgar Latin *scaccus.
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
edited May 18 '11 at 4:58
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
answered May 18 '11 at 4:43
Garet Claborn
1,5271020
1,5271020
1
so check just means "king"?
– Louis Rhys
May 18 '11 at 4:46
Check comes from a Persian phrase 'shah' (king) where 'shah mata / shah mat' meant 'the king is dead' or 'the king is helpless'. I believe this is actually the Persian gameplay terminology over 1000 years ago before Europeans really caught onto it.
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:07
2
Interestingly, that became "scacco matto" in Italian... although matto means mad in Italian!
– nico
May 18 '11 at 6:09
2
In Swedish, it's "schack matt", which is pretty close to the original. Cool. (Chess is actually called Schack, fwiw..)
– Macke
May 18 '11 at 11:52
1
I find the etymology at word origins (the nicer description) questionable because of the reference to Vulgar Latin. It says check < eschequier (Old French) < eschec < scaccus (Vulgar Latin) < shah (Arabic) < shah (Persian). I don't know what scaccus means exactly (does the '' means it is reconstructed but not extant?), but Vulgar Latin is the name of the colloquial Latin at the time of the Roman Empire ... did the game of chess even exist then, and were there borrowings from Arabic at that time?
– Mitch
May 18 '11 at 14:31
|
show 3 more comments
1
so check just means "king"?
– Louis Rhys
May 18 '11 at 4:46
Check comes from a Persian phrase 'shah' (king) where 'shah mata / shah mat' meant 'the king is dead' or 'the king is helpless'. I believe this is actually the Persian gameplay terminology over 1000 years ago before Europeans really caught onto it.
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:07
2
Interestingly, that became "scacco matto" in Italian... although matto means mad in Italian!
– nico
May 18 '11 at 6:09
2
In Swedish, it's "schack matt", which is pretty close to the original. Cool. (Chess is actually called Schack, fwiw..)
– Macke
May 18 '11 at 11:52
1
I find the etymology at word origins (the nicer description) questionable because of the reference to Vulgar Latin. It says check < eschequier (Old French) < eschec < scaccus (Vulgar Latin) < shah (Arabic) < shah (Persian). I don't know what scaccus means exactly (does the '' means it is reconstructed but not extant?), but Vulgar Latin is the name of the colloquial Latin at the time of the Roman Empire ... did the game of chess even exist then, and were there borrowings from Arabic at that time?
– Mitch
May 18 '11 at 14:31
1
1
so check just means "king"?
– Louis Rhys
May 18 '11 at 4:46
so check just means "king"?
– Louis Rhys
May 18 '11 at 4:46
Check comes from a Persian phrase 'shah' (king) where 'shah mata / shah mat' meant 'the king is dead' or 'the king is helpless'. I believe this is actually the Persian gameplay terminology over 1000 years ago before Europeans really caught onto it.
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:07
Check comes from a Persian phrase 'shah' (king) where 'shah mata / shah mat' meant 'the king is dead' or 'the king is helpless'. I believe this is actually the Persian gameplay terminology over 1000 years ago before Europeans really caught onto it.
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:07
2
2
Interestingly, that became "scacco matto" in Italian... although matto means mad in Italian!
– nico
May 18 '11 at 6:09
Interestingly, that became "scacco matto" in Italian... although matto means mad in Italian!
– nico
May 18 '11 at 6:09
2
2
In Swedish, it's "schack matt", which is pretty close to the original. Cool. (Chess is actually called Schack, fwiw..)
– Macke
May 18 '11 at 11:52
In Swedish, it's "schack matt", which is pretty close to the original. Cool. (Chess is actually called Schack, fwiw..)
– Macke
May 18 '11 at 11:52
1
1
I find the etymology at word origins (the nicer description) questionable because of the reference to Vulgar Latin. It says check < eschequier (Old French) < eschec < scaccus (Vulgar Latin) < shah (Arabic) < shah (Persian). I don't know what scaccus means exactly (does the '' means it is reconstructed but not extant?), but Vulgar Latin is the name of the colloquial Latin at the time of the Roman Empire ... did the game of chess even exist then, and were there borrowings from Arabic at that time?
– Mitch
May 18 '11 at 14:31
I find the etymology at word origins (the nicer description) questionable because of the reference to Vulgar Latin. It says check < eschequier (Old French) < eschec < scaccus (Vulgar Latin) < shah (Arabic) < shah (Persian). I don't know what scaccus means exactly (does the '' means it is reconstructed but not extant?), but Vulgar Latin is the name of the colloquial Latin at the time of the Roman Empire ... did the game of chess even exist then, and were there borrowings from Arabic at that time?
– Mitch
May 18 '11 at 14:31
|
show 3 more comments
up vote
2
down vote
Check comes from Arabic "Sheikh"; mate comes from "mat". Together the two Arabic words mean the sheikh or master or even king is dead, which signifies the end of a game of chess.
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
add a comment |
up vote
2
down vote
Check comes from Arabic "Sheikh"; mate comes from "mat". Together the two Arabic words mean the sheikh or master or even king is dead, which signifies the end of a game of chess.
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
add a comment |
up vote
2
down vote
up vote
2
down vote
Check comes from Arabic "Sheikh"; mate comes from "mat". Together the two Arabic words mean the sheikh or master or even king is dead, which signifies the end of a game of chess.
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
Check comes from Arabic "Sheikh"; mate comes from "mat". Together the two Arabic words mean the sheikh or master or even king is dead, which signifies the end of a game of chess.
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
edited Apr 8 '12 at 12:58
Robusto
127k27303513
127k27303513
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
answered Apr 7 '12 at 12:23
miran Al-Ali
211
211
add a comment |
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
Or maybe it comes from the Arabic shahu-ka mat, literally, 'your king is dead'. (Shah is king, the ka suffix means 'your', and as the previous commentators have said, 'mat' means 'died'.
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
That's an interesting suggestion. Can you find any on- or off-line sources to help it out a bit?
– Brian Hooper
Sep 17 '15 at 12:02
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
Or maybe it comes from the Arabic shahu-ka mat, literally, 'your king is dead'. (Shah is king, the ka suffix means 'your', and as the previous commentators have said, 'mat' means 'died'.
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
That's an interesting suggestion. Can you find any on- or off-line sources to help it out a bit?
– Brian Hooper
Sep 17 '15 at 12:02
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
up vote
1
down vote
Or maybe it comes from the Arabic shahu-ka mat, literally, 'your king is dead'. (Shah is king, the ka suffix means 'your', and as the previous commentators have said, 'mat' means 'died'.
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
Or maybe it comes from the Arabic shahu-ka mat, literally, 'your king is dead'. (Shah is king, the ka suffix means 'your', and as the previous commentators have said, 'mat' means 'died'.
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
answered Sep 17 '15 at 11:33
Justin McGuinness
111
111
That's an interesting suggestion. Can you find any on- or off-line sources to help it out a bit?
– Brian Hooper
Sep 17 '15 at 12:02
add a comment |
That's an interesting suggestion. Can you find any on- or off-line sources to help it out a bit?
– Brian Hooper
Sep 17 '15 at 12:02
That's an interesting suggestion. Can you find any on- or off-line sources to help it out a bit?
– Brian Hooper
Sep 17 '15 at 12:02
That's an interesting suggestion. Can you find any on- or off-line sources to help it out a bit?
– Brian Hooper
Sep 17 '15 at 12:02
add a comment |
protected by MetaEd♦ Dec 3 at 19:19
Thank you for your interest in this question.
Because it has attracted low-quality or spam answers that had to be removed, posting an answer now requires 10 reputation on this site (the association bonus does not count).
Would you like to answer one of these unanswered questions instead?
Good additional reference on Chess History
– Garet Claborn
May 18 '11 at 5:11