The term checkmate is, according to the Barnhart Etymological Dictionary, an alteration of the Farsi phrase "shāh māt" which means, literally, "the King is helpless". Others maintain that it means "the King is dead", as chess reached Europe via the Islamic world, and Arabic māta means "died" or "is dead". However, in the Pashto language (an Afghan language), the word māt still exists, meaning "destroyed, broken".
source: wikipedia
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