I was kind of surprised to know that "rook" doesn't mean elephant, and bishop doesn't mean "camel".
In Hindi, we have
Paida = Foot soldier (Pawn)
Ghora = Horse (Knight)
Oont = Camel (Bishop)
Hathi = Elephant (Rook)
Mantri = Minister (Queen)
Raja = King (King)
Pion = Pawn (Pawn)
Cavalier = Horseman (Knight)
Fou = Fool (Bishop)
Tour = Tower (Rook)
Dame = Lady (Queen)
Roi = King (King)
lol, why is the bishop called a fool? is it because he moves diagonally which is a bit funny?
"IN the origins of the game itself, the game was called Chaturanga and it was not exactly the same as modern chess. The piece we call a rook was considered to be a chariot rather than a castle, probably because of the speed with which it moves. The Sanskrit word for chariot was "ratha". In Arabic it is still referred to as a chariot with the name "rukhkh." When the game spread to Europe, the word "rukhkh" sounded like the Italian word "rocco", which meant "tower." Since the two words sounded alike, the Italian word was used but the meaning changed from chariot to tower.
The piece is still thought of as a tower in European translations. Various European countries use their language's word for "tower" rather than their words for "chariot". In Middle English the concept of tower eventually turned into castle since most castles had towers."
>Suldat = Soldier (Pawn)
>Żiemel = Horse (Knight)
>Isqof = Bishop (Bishop)
>Torri = Tower (Rook)
>Reġina = Queen (Queen)
>Re = King (King)
Gyalog = Foot soldier (Pawn)
Paraszt = Foot soldier (Pawn)
Ló = Horse (Knight)
Huszár = Hussar (Knight)
Futó = runner/messenger (Bishop)
Bástya = Bastion (Rook)
Vezér = Leader (Queen)
Királynő = Queen (Queen)
Király = King (King)
Académicien = Academician (Pawn)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau = Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Knight)
Blaise Pascal = Blaise Pascal (Bishop)
Henri Bergson = Henri Bergson (Rook)
Simone Weil = Simone Weil (Queen)
René Descartes = René Descartes (King)
>Paraszt = farmer (Pawn)
Fixed
No it actually comes from the "fou du roy", or "royal jester", which was a medieval artist dedicated to entertain the royal court (and who was sometimes allowed to mock the king's traits and behaviour)
>From Middle English rook, roke, rok, from Old French roc, ultimately from Persian رخ (rox), from Middle Persian lhw' (rox, “rook, castle (chess)”), possibly from Sanskrit रथ (ratha, “chariot”).
It's also another a word meaning a kind of bird, but that has a separate etymology.