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Shah maat, actually, and it came from Farsi/Persian, not Arabic. Shah is Farsi for king. Edit: The word chess itself also derives from shah. According to Wikti
by amyjess 10y ago
Shah maat, actually, and it came from Farsi/Persian, not Arabic. Shah is Farsi for king.
Edit: The word chess itself also derives from shah. According to Wiktionary [0], it comes from Old French eschés, the plural of eschec, which comes from Vulgar Latin (scaccus* being the unattested reconstruction), which comes from Arabic shah, which finally comes from Farsi shah.
[0] https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chess https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/chess
- subliminalpanda 10y agoI see thanks for the clarification.
- khedoros1 10y agoThat makes it clearer where the German "Schach" probably came from. I wondered about it when I learned that word.