![]() We can see more evidence of this mysterious word in other languages as well, particularly in their word for castling. The origins of the English word rook are unclear-it's a word specific to chess! The English and Old French words came from Arabic rukhkh, which was rukh in Persian… but no one knows what it meant back then! The symbol of the rook playing piece has moved quite far from the image of a speedy chariot, and in some languages (including Spanish) the rook is simply known as the "tower" (Spanish: la torre). For example, in Spanish the knight piece is known as a caballo (horse)!Īt some point, the original chariots became what we today know as the rook. As a result, some languages use the word for the horse instead of the rider for this piece. Today's knights originated as the cavalry-soldiers on horseback. In fact, the English word peon ultimately comes from the same Latin word as pawn! Foot soldiers and pawns were allegedly from the poorest classes, which is why some languages use words for "peasant" and "farmer" for these pieces. The English word pawn was adopted from the older French forms poun, peon, and pehon, which simply meant soldiers on foot. ![]() The infantry foot soldiers were represented as the pawns. Some pieces started as representing the chaturanga-4 parts-of the army: infantry, cavalry, troops mounted on elephants, and chariots. Take a look at the list at the end of this post! Where do the names of chess pieces come from?Ĭhess piece names have similarly complex, layered stories that led them to their modern forms. You can see the similarities of the names chess, check, and checkmate when you look at languages from around the world. Not all languages have a "sh" sound, so some languages use "s" instead of "sh" in their words for chess, check, and checkmate! Other sound changes can be seen in other languages. The final -h in this phrase also became pronounced as a "k" sound in French, and then in English we borrowed the word as checkmate-the shah is cornered! The goal of the game is to corner the king (formerly, the shah), and in Persian the expression was "to stump (or surprise) the king": shah mat. In each new language, the pronunciation of the word changed slightly to fit the language's sound patterns, eventually yielding Modern Standard Arabic شطرنج (shattaranj), Spanish ajedrez, and Portuguese xadrez. (More on those below.) Chaturanga was adopted into Persian, then Arabic, and then Spanish and Portuguese, due to the long history of contact between Arabic and Spanish and Portuguese. In both cases, chaturanga means "four parts" or "four limbs," and the chess meaning traces back to the 4 military branches in India. Chaturanga might also sound familiar to the yogis among you-it's the same word as the four-limbed yoga plank pose! Today, this word can be used for a whole category of chess-like board games that evolved their own forms in cultures around the world. Other languages got the name of the game from a different source: the Sanskrit name chaturanga. The plural name is the one that was borrowed into English as chess! What was once shah became more like shak, and this evolved into the older French words eschec (check) and eschecs (plural name for all the pieces). In many European languages, the "h" at the end of shah was replaced with a similar sound also made at the back of the throat: the "k" sound. Second, it underwent an important sound change. First, its meaning expanded to refer to the whole game and not just the one piece. The Persian word was adopted into Arabic as the name of the king playing piece, and when the game made it to Europe, shah evolved in 2 ways. Not surprisingly, the history of the English name chess all starts with a king: the Persian shah! Today, we pronounce that word in English as "sha," since even though we have the "h" sound in English (like in happy), we don't pronounce “h” at the ends of words-but other languages have different rules, and in Persian, you pronounce the "h" at the end of shah. All you have to do is listen closely… Where does the word "chess" come from? ![]() If you've ever tried your hand at chess, you know how many languages are involved: en passant comes from French, German gives us super fast blitz matches, and the bishop's fianchetto move comes from Italian.īut there's a lot more where that came from! The long history of chess is a history of language and linguistic change, too.
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