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35,981 English word records · 45,491 etymology sections in this online subset

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4 source sections across 2 headwords matching “Chess”. These are separate from the reviewed results below.

Open the permanent entry for Chess →Open the permanent entry for chess →
ChessEnglish (en) · Unnumbered etymologySource text

The river name is a back-formation from Chesham, a town at the head of the river.

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗
chessEnglish (en) · Etymology 1Source text

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tek- Proto-Indo-Iranian *kšáyati Proto-Iranian *xšáyati Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ) Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /⁠šāh⁠/) Classical Persian شاه (šāh)bor. Arabic شَاه (šāh)der. Old French eschésbor. Middle English ches English chess From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Medieval Latin scaccus, from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “king [in chess]”), from Classical Persian شاه (šāh, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian 𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /⁠šāh⁠/), from Old Persian 𐏋 (XŠ /⁠xšāyaθiya⁠/). Compare German Schach and Italian scacchi. Compare French échecs (“chess”) and its descendants: Catalan escacs and Dutch schaak. More at check and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”).

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗
chessEnglish (en) · Etymology 2Source text

Uncertain; perhaps linked to Etymology 1, above, from the sense of being arranged in rows or lines.

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chessEnglish (en) · Etymology 3Source text

Compare French châssis (“a framework of carpentry”).

Original Wiktionary entry and references ↗

From Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Extraction source · CC-BY-SA-4.0. Selected source text is reformatted for display; language and section identity are retained.

Source dump: 2026-10-01 · Extraction: 2026-10-30. These dates identify a dump snapshot, not an individual page revision.

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SOURCE SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
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c4c2a77325141846709230e11c2959332acd630d53e52905b72d36211251b081
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73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
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