George Duke wrote on Sat, Aug 16, 2008 04:00 PM UTC:
One supposes ''Chess'' means King. Shah is King from Sanskrit.
(Easterners may enlighten.) 'Shah' passed to Persian and to Arabic. No
one reads Murray's 'History of Chess' (1913) for style, only content.
Invented in India 600 CE, Chess spread and mediaeval Europe (9th, 10th
Centuries) needed Latin words for the premier game. Most Chess writing was
in Latin up to 1600, like scientific writing up to 1750. Latin scacus,
scac, scacum (''a check''), all pluralized as Latin scaci for
''Chess,'' were thus late adaptations from Arabic. (Even today we
Latinize words for scientific classification -- and on small scale, updates
for at least one extant religion.) It became at the time for the game
itself Italian scacchi, Middle French esches, Catalan scachs, English
chess. Roughly, mainstream Europe had no ''sh'' aspirant then, so
Arabic shah became ''sca - '', the closest equivalent. Mediaevil Latin
scacus is also chess piece and not just King piece. Latin plural scaci
being Chess itself, by year 1000 the other major Latin name for Chess is
ludus scacorum, ''ludus'' as game. Chiefly, ludus scacorum became
Chess. Well before Chess appeared, Classic Roman ludus latrunculorum was
their singular game of skill. [Gary Gifford's Latrunculi is in fact late Middle Age rare alternate name for chess appearing in Murray as latinization. Latrunculi could not be Roman Latin because there was no Chess then. Gifford's account does not mislead, but several other 'Gifford CVs' feature classical Roman times. Roman L.L. was different board game with rules only conjectured.]
One supposes ''Chess'' means King. Shah is King from Sanskrit. (Easterners may enlighten.) 'Shah' passed to Persian and to Arabic. No one reads Murray's 'History of Chess' (1913) for style, only content. Invented in India 600 CE, Chess spread and mediaeval Europe (9th, 10th Centuries) needed Latin words for the premier game. Most Chess writing was in Latin up to 1600, like scientific writing up to 1750. Latin scacus, scac, scacum (''a check''), all pluralized as Latin scaci for ''Chess,'' were thus late adaptations from Arabic. (Even today we Latinize words for scientific classification -- and on small scale, updates for at least one extant religion.) It became at the time for the game itself Italian scacchi, Middle French esches, Catalan scachs, English chess. Roughly, mainstream Europe had no ''sh'' aspirant then, so Arabic shah became ''sca - '', the closest equivalent. Mediaevil Latin scacus is also chess piece and not just King piece. Latin plural scaci being Chess itself, by year 1000 the other major Latin name for Chess is ludus scacorum, ''ludus'' as game. Chiefly, ludus scacorum became Chess. Well before Chess appeared, Classic Roman ludus latrunculorum was their singular game of skill. [Gary Gifford's Latrunculi is in fact late Middle Age rare alternate name for chess appearing in Murray as latinization. Latrunculi could not be Roman Latin because there was no Chess then. Gifford's account does not mislead, but several other 'Gifford CVs' feature classical Roman times. Roman L.L. was different board game with rules only conjectured.]