شاه‌مات

Persian

Alternative forms

شه‌مات (šah-māt / šah-mât), شهمات (šahmāt / šahmât)
شاهمات (šāhmāt / šâhmât), شاه مات (šāh māt / šâh mât)

Etymology

Literally, “the king is amazed”, from (šâh, “king”) +‎ (mât, “stunned, amazed”). When the term passed into Arabic before being borrowed into Romance languages, the second element was interpreted as مَاتَ (māta, “to die”).^[1] The Tajik usage of шоҳмот (šohmot) to mean "chess" is a phono-semantic matching of Russian шахматы (šaxmaty).

Pronunciation

(Classical Persian) IPA^(key): /ʃaːh.ˈmaːt/

(Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [ʃɑːɦ.mɑːt̪]
- (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [ʃɑː.mɑːt̪]
- (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [ʃɔː.mɔːt̪]

(Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [ʃɒːɦ.mɒːt̪]

(Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [ʃɔɦ.mɔt̪]

Readings
Classical reading^?	šāh-māt
Dari reading^?	šāh-māt
Iranian reading^?	šâh-mât
Tajik reading^?	šoh-mot

Noun

شاه‌مات • (šāh-māt / šâh-mât) (Tajik spelling шоҳмот)

(chess, now rare) checkmate
Synonym: کیش‌مات (kiš-mât)
(Tajik) chess
Synonym: شطرنج (šatranj)

References

^ Robert K. Barnhart, editor (1988), Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, H. W. Wilson Co.

[1] Robert K. Barnhart, editor (1988), Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology, H. W. Wilson Co.

[1]