English Words from Arabic
check
الشّاه
shāh
The chess player's warning that the king is threatened; Old French took it from Arabic shāh. Checkmate is 'the shāh is dead'. The bank cheque grew from check – no reliable source links it to Arabic ṣakk.
- Meaning in Arabic
- the king, in chess
- Before Arabic
- Persian shāh, 'king' (Merriam-Webster)
- Arabic today says
- الشّاه في الشِّطْرَنْج
The path between languagesshāh → eschec → check
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Sources
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