Editing Checkmate (section)

==Etymology==
The term ''checkmate'' is, according to the Barnhart [[Etymology|Etymological]] Dictionary, an alteration of the [[Persian language|Persian]] phrase "shāh māt" ({{lang|fa|شاه مات|rtl=yes}}) which means "the King is helpless".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=checkmate|title=Online Etymology Dictionary|access-date=May 29, 2010|last=Harper|first=Douglas|author2=Dan McCormack}}</ref> Persian "māt" applies to the king but in Sanskrit "māta", also pronounced "māt", applied to his kingdom "traversed, measured across, and meted out" thoroughly by his opponent; "māta" is the past participle of "mā" verbal root.<ref>Monier-Williams Sanskrit Dictionary</ref> Others maintain that it means "the King is dead", as chess reached Europe via the [[Arab world]], and Arabic ''māta'' ({{lang|ar|مَاتَ|rtl=yes}}) means "died" or "is dead".<ref>{{harvnb|Hooper|Whyld|1992}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Davidson|1949|p=70}}</ref> Moghadam traced the [[etymology]] of the word ''mate''. It comes from a Persian verb ''mandan'' ({{lang|fa|ماندن|rtl=yes}}), meaning "to remain", which is cognate with the Latin word {{lang|la|maneō}} and the Greek ''menō'' ({{lang|grc|μένω}}, which means "I remain"). It means "remained" in the sense of "abandoned" and the formal translation is "surprised", in the military sense of "ambushed".<ref>{{harvnb|Davidson|1949|pp=70–71}}</ref> "Shāh" ({{lang|fa|شاه|rtl=yes}}) is the Persian word for the monarch. Players would announce "Shāh" when the king was in check. "Māt" ({{lang|fa|مات|rtl=yes}}) is a Persian adjective for "at a loss", "helpless", or "defeated".  So the king is in ''mate'' when he is ambushed, at a loss, helpless, defeated, or abandoned to his fate.<ref>{{harvnb|Murray|2012|p=159}}</ref>

In modern Persian, the word ''mate'' depicts a person who is frozen, open-mouthed, staring, confused and unresponsive.  The words "stupefied" or "stunned" bear close correlation.  So a possible alternative would be to interpret ''mate'' as "unable to respond".  A king being in ''mate'' (shah-mat) then means a king is unable to respond, which would correspond to there being no response that a player's king can make to the opponent's final move. This interpretation is much closer to the original intent of the game being not to kill a king but to leave him with no viable response other than surrender, which better matches the [[History of chess#Iran .28Persia.29|origin story detailed in the Shahnameh]].

In modern parlance, the term ''checkmate'' is a [[metaphor]] for an irrefutable and strategic victory.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/checkmate |title=Checkmate – Definition and More from the Free Merriam-Webster Dictionary |publisher=Merriam-webster.com |date=2010-08-13 |access-date=2012-06-18}}</ref>