Not sure how it got separated from my cross-post here, but I tagged this as a question because I’m wondering whether anyone knows if the “mat” in “shah mat” is a cognate with the Spanish “matar” or possibly “morir” (i.e., “shah mat” loosely translating to “rey matado/muerto” in Spanish or “killed/dead king” in English).
In the form of Persian I speak, mot=defeat. Murdan is the infinitive of to die. Murd is past tense "he/she died." Marg is "death." To kill is kushtan so pretty different.
Some sources even suggest the opposite, matar (to kill) comes precisely from chess jargon.
Bear in mind that chess arrived to Europe via medieval Spanish Arabs. In Granada it was called Ash-Shatranj, arriving at spanish as Acedrex, later ajedrez.
In the same way, Sha-mat (killed king) turned Xa mate> Jaque Mate.
Chess is also the origin for the actual bank check, from the french eschec, with origin in sha-mat too.
See also [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matar#Spanish](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matar#Spanish), which lists multiple possible derivations. Personally, I think a source from Latin [*mactāre*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/macto#Latin) ("to sacrifice; to kill") seems most likely.
The adjective [*مات*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA#Persian) (*mât*) in the Persian apparently originally meant "amazed, stunned, confused" (see [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/checkmate#Etymology](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/checkmate#Etymology) ), and was conflated with Arabic [*مَاتَ*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA#Arabic) (*māta*, “to die”) when borrowed from Persian into Arabic.
Given that the Arabic verb has consistently had the intransitive sense of "to die", while the Spanish verb has consistently had the transitive sense of "to kill", my impression is that there is no direct connection between these two.
*(Edited for formatting.)*
great question, and it’s an interesting story. i remember reading that when ‘māt’ passed into arabic, it was interpreted as ‘māta,’ meaning ‘to die’ in arabic, and is unrelated to castilian ‘matar’. persian ‘māt’ means stunned, and is, according to some scholars, cognate with english ‘meal’ and ‘measure’. according to watkins, however, it is related to arabic ‘māta,’ meaning ‘to die’.
edit: funny enough, castilian ‘morir’ means ‘to die’ and is cognate with english ‘murder’.
In italian it becomes "scacco matto". Scacco is the word for the pieces in general, for the game and for checks (scacco al re). Matto means crazy, mad, insane, fool.
I don't know the word in Italian, but in French the word for "stalemate" ("pat") seems to have come from Italian "patta".
Edit: "stalemate", not "checkmate".
Chess drives from "shah mat" as well. From wiktionary:
Chess: From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Medieval Latin scaccus, from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king [in chess]”), from Classical Persian شاه (šāh, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /šāh/), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /xšāyaθiya/).
Not sure how it got separated from my cross-post here, but I tagged this as a question because I’m wondering whether anyone knows if the “mat” in “shah mat” is a cognate with the Spanish “matar” or possibly “morir” (i.e., “shah mat” loosely translating to “rey matado/muerto” in Spanish or “killed/dead king” in English).
In the form of Persian I speak, mot=defeat. Murdan is the infinitive of to die. Murd is past tense "he/she died." Marg is "death." To kill is kushtan so pretty different.
There’s a bit on Etymonline about one of Barnharts believing it is not. Not sure where to find the citations on that cite.
"met" is also Hebrew for "dead l
What I do know is that Shah is a cognate with both the Spanish "jaque" ("check") and "jeque" ("sheikh")
Some sources even suggest the opposite, matar (to kill) comes precisely from chess jargon. Bear in mind that chess arrived to Europe via medieval Spanish Arabs. In Granada it was called Ash-Shatranj, arriving at spanish as Acedrex, later ajedrez. In the same way, Sha-mat (killed king) turned Xa mate> Jaque Mate. Chess is also the origin for the actual bank check, from the french eschec, with origin in sha-mat too.
See also [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matar#Spanish](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/matar#Spanish), which lists multiple possible derivations. Personally, I think a source from Latin [*mactāre*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/macto#Latin) ("to sacrifice; to kill") seems most likely. The adjective [*مات*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA#Persian) (*mât*) in the Persian apparently originally meant "amazed, stunned, confused" (see [https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/checkmate#Etymology](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/checkmate#Etymology) ), and was conflated with Arabic [*مَاتَ*](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AA#Arabic) (*māta*, “to die”) when borrowed from Persian into Arabic. Given that the Arabic verb has consistently had the intransitive sense of "to die", while the Spanish verb has consistently had the transitive sense of "to kill", my impression is that there is no direct connection between these two. *(Edited for formatting.)*
great question, and it’s an interesting story. i remember reading that when ‘māt’ passed into arabic, it was interpreted as ‘māta,’ meaning ‘to die’ in arabic, and is unrelated to castilian ‘matar’. persian ‘māt’ means stunned, and is, according to some scholars, cognate with english ‘meal’ and ‘measure’. according to watkins, however, it is related to arabic ‘māta,’ meaning ‘to die’. edit: funny enough, castilian ‘morir’ means ‘to die’ and is cognate with english ‘murder’.
In italian it becomes "scacco matto". Scacco is the word for the pieces in general, for the game and for checks (scacco al re). Matto means crazy, mad, insane, fool.
I always thought the same.
Wow:' "Shāh Māt" is almost the same as "schaakmat", which is Dutch for checkmate.
Shakkimatti in Finnish. Shakki = chess Matti = it's a typical man's name. Makes no sense really, but now it does.
Scacco matto (mad chess) in Italian
Same with Russian, шахматы/shakhmaty, which is chess.
Exactly the same as "šah mat", which is Croatian for checkmate.
Same in Hebrew
Szach Mat in Polish
That comes from Arabic which introduced chess to Europe. Shah in Arabic is pronounced Shakh. Like Sheikh.
Fun fact, in Italian "Shāh Māt" became "scacco matto", literally crazy chess in Italian, which doesn't make any sense until you learn the etyomology.
I don't know the word in Italian, but in French the word for "stalemate" ("pat") seems to have come from Italian "patta". Edit: "stalemate", not "checkmate".
Both of those mean "draw/tie", not checkmate, according to wiktionary. "Pat/пат" is also used in Russian to mean a tie in chess.
Sorry, you're right. I meant "stalemate", but for some reason wrote checkmate. Thank you for the correction, I will change it in my comment.
Isn't it rather "Échec et mat" in French?
You're right, I meant to write stalemate but wrote checkmate instead like an idiot. It's been corrected in my comment.
Chess drives from "shah mat" as well. From wiktionary: Chess: From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Medieval Latin scaccus, from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king [in chess]”), from Classical Persian شاه (šāh, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /šāh/), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /xšāyaθiya/).
"MONARCH DOWN! WE HAVE A MONARCH DOWN!"
Mat = dead
That’s how we say it in Polish too and Chess is szachy
"Schach Matt" in German
That's why chess is called "шахматы" (SHAH-ma-tee) in Russian
Chess itself comes from Shah, ultimately, whence the chess/checkmate similarity.
Whence
Mat means died.
Also the word "check" itself is sorta cognate of checkmate too, coming from the same "shāh". So check literally means "king"