escaque

Spanish

Etymology

Borrowed from Medieval Latin scaccum or a corresponding Romance word, e.g. Catalan escac (“check!; chess piece”) and escacs (“chess”), from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “shah; king in chess”) or شَاهُك (šāhuk, “your king”); see related jaque. Cognate with Italian scacco, French échec, Old Occitan escac (“chess”).

Alternatively, Coromines & Pascual suspect it may instead descend from ultimately a Germanic borrowing, as in Frankish *skāk (“robbery”) and Lombardic *skāk, cognate with Gallic/Lombardic Medieval Latin scachus and a northern Italo-Romance scac ("loot; robbery"), cf. Latin ludus latrunculorum (literally “game of the robbers”), an ancient game similar to chess. This would better explain the development of the initial consonants, although the word would still be contaminated by the Arabic word reflected in jaque.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /esˈkake/ [esˈka.ke]
• Rhymes: -ake
• Syllabification: es‧ca‧que

Noun

escaque m (plural escaques)

1. a tile of a board to play chess or checkers
2. (plural only) chess

Derived terms

• escaquearse

 

References

• Joan Coromines, José A[ntonio] Pascual (1984) “jaque”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico [Critic Castilian and Hispanic Etymological Dictionary] (in Spanish), volume III (G–Ma), Madrid: Gredos, →ISBN, pages 490-491

Further reading

• “escaque”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2023 November 28