mid-14c., in chess, said of a king when it is in check and cannot escape it, from Old French eschec mat (Modern French échec et mat), which (with Spanish jaque y mate, Italian scacco-matto) is from Arabic shah mat"the king died", which according to Barnhart is a misinterpretation of Persian mat "be astonished" as mata "to die," mat "he is dead." Hence Persian shah mat, if it is the ultimate source of the word, would be literally "the king is left helpless, the king is stumped."
来自阿拉伯语shah mat.
shah, 王，mat, 杀。即将杀死你的王 -> 将军。
关于国际象棋，大部分历史学者认为起源于古印度，后来流传至波斯，再经过阿拉伯、流传至欧洲。至今见诸于文献最早的记录是在萨珊王朝时期用波斯文写的。国际象棋中向对方的国王“将一军”，英语叫 check ，它是从古波斯语 shah （国王）演变来的，意思是提醒对方我下一步就要吃掉你的国王了。当对手发出 check 的提醒时，自己就要仔细检查本方棋盘中国王的安全，所以 check 一词延伸出现在的“检查”、“核查”等含义。
🫧 之前提到国际象棋里King永远不会被吃掉，顶多就是被check，checkmate，实在是字面义理解了。原来checkmate一路追溯到阿拉伯语是shat(king) mata(kill)，字面义就是国王被杀，远比棋盘上的血腥。但是又有词源研究指出追溯到波斯语，mat是受到惊吓，所以也可能是表达国王孤立无援，进退两难的意思。