Every form of the word “check” comes from a Persian word, shahmat, which means “the king dies”. This is from the earliest known games of chess, and that specifically got brought into English as “checkmate”.
That’s not quite true - it does (probably) come from Persian shah mat, but that meant “the king is stumped, the king is astonished”. When originally borrowed into Arabic it was incorrectly assumed that it instead meant “the king is dead”, and the mistranslation survived from there into the languages that borrowed it from Arabic. Source.
Every form of the word “check” comes from a Persian word, shahmat, which means “the king dies”. This is from the earliest known games of chess, and that specifically got brought into English as “checkmate”.
That’s not quite true - it does (probably) come from Persian shah mat, but that meant “the king is stumped, the king is astonished”. When originally borrowed into Arabic it was incorrectly assumed that it instead meant “the king is dead”, and the mistranslation survived from there into the languages that borrowed it from Arabic. Source.
“Scacco matto” in Italian, which doesn’t mean anything (fool check?), but it’s surely sounds like checkmate.
100% from Persian “check mate”/“shāh māt”/شاه مات
(“The king is dead/helpless”)
“Mat” I connect with death always, I don’t know why. Mata. To kill. It seems similar over languages somehow.