Thread by @yakabikaj

In many languages the queen chess piece is called by a word derived from the Persian farzān/farzīn (source of Arabic فرزان firzān, Russian ферзь ferz', Mongolian ᠪᠡᠷᠰᠡ berse, Uzbek farzin, even Middle English fers !) A thread on the #etymology of this interesting word. 1/9

https://twitter.com/matt_boot_/status/1484251827579277312

This word appears as frazēn in Middle Persian sources on chess. The piece wasn't exactly the same as today's queen, but a precursor from an earlier form of chess. It could only move one square diagonally. There is disagreement as to what "frazēn" originally meant. 2/

The disagreement boils down to whether frazēn meant something like "guard" or "counselor/minister". Either way, it later came to be associated with New Persian words for learned/wise, counselor/minister: farzān, farzīn, farzāna, etc. (along with other terms eg. dastūr, vazīr). 3/

In Middle English this piece was called fers or ferz, from Old French fierce, Latin ferzia, from the Persian word (possibly via Arabic). According to the OED, it was used at least as late as 1676, two centuries after other Europeans were calling it "queen" in their languages. 4/

As the name "ferz" was replaced with "queen" in English, it became associated with a different chess piece, what we know as the queen in the modern version of chess. 5/

The history and etymology of chess terminology across languages is fascinating, like the word checkmate which goes back to Persian phrase شاه مات shāh māt, "the king is astonished" or "the king died" (depending on how we analyze it—it's debated). 6/

Persian shāh māt is the ultimately source of the name for chess in some languages, like Russian шахматы shakhmaty or Hebrew שחמט shakhmat. 7/

Other languages (like Persian itself & Arabic) call it شطرنج shatranj (source of Spanish ajedrez) < Middle Persian 𐭰𐭠𐭲𐭫𐭠𐭭𐭢 chatrang < Sanskrit चतुरङ्ग caturaṅga "four-limbed", referring to four divisions of the military: elephants, chariots, cavalry, & infantry. 8/

There are many other interesting chess terms to discuss, but I'll leave that for another time. 9/end
[Sources]
journals.openedition.org/abstractairani…
iranicaonline.org/articles/wizar…
iranicaonline.org/articles/chess…
ruj.uj.edu.pl/xmlui/bitstrea…
google.com/books/edition/…
academia.edu/42833344/On_th…