escaque

Borrowed from Medieval Latin scaccum, from Arabic شَاه (šāh, “shah; king in chess”).

• Hyphenation: es‧ca‧que

escaque m (plural escaques)

1. square (on a chessboard)
2. (heraldry) checky

• “escaque”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2025

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”), Portuguese escaque.

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.

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

escaque m (plural escaques)

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

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

• “escaque”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024