شاه‌مات

Persian

Alternative forms

• شه‌مات (šah mât), شهمات (šahmât)
• شاهمات, شاه مات

Etymology

Literally, “the king is amazed”, from شاه (šâh, “king”) +‎ مات (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”). The Tajik usage of шоҳмот (šohmot) to mean "chess" is a phono-semantic matching of Russian шахматы (šaxmaty).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [ʃɑːh.mɑːt]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [ʃɑːɦ.mɑːt̪]

• (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 • (šâh-mât)

1. (chess) checkmate

   Synonym: کیش‌مات (kiš-mât)

2. (Tajik) chess

   Synonym: شطرنج (šatranj)