chess

Meaning

Noun

• A board game for two players, each beginning with sixteen chess pieces moving according to fixed rules across a chessboard with the objective to checkmate the opposing king.
• Any of several species of grass in the genus Bromus, generally considered weeds.
• One of the platforms, consisting of two or more planks dowelled together, for the flooring of a temporary military bridge.

Origin

• From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Medieval Latin scaccus, from Arabic شَاه ("king [in chess]"), from Persian شاه ("shah, king"), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠, from Old Persian 𐏋.
• Compare German Schach and Italian scacchi. Compare French échecs ("chess") and its descendants: Catalan escacs and Dutch schaak. More at check and shah.
• Origin uncertain; perhaps linked to Etymology 1, above, from the sense of being arranged in rows or lines.
• Compare French châssis ("a framework of carpentry").