Etymology

scacchic

scacch·ic
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Today it means: Of or relating to chess. Full definition →

Italian scacchi ← Provençal escac ← Persian شاه (šâh)
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The story

  1. Proto-Indo-European*tek-
  2. Proto-Indo-Iranian*kšáyati
  3. Proto-Iranian*xšáyati
  4. Old Persian𐏋 (XŠ)
  5. Middle Persian𐭬𐭫𐭪𐭠 (mlkʾ /⁠šāh⁠/)
  6. Persianشاه (šâh)
  7. Provençalescac
  8. Italianscacco
  9. Italianscacchi
  10. English todayscacchic

From Italian scacchi (“chess”) + -ic (suffix meaning ‘of’ or ‘relating to’ forming adjectives). Scacchi is the plural of Italian scacco, derived from Old Catalan and Provençal escac (“chess piece”), from Persian شاه (šâh, “king, shah; (chess) king”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *tek- (“to get control or power over; to obtain, receive; to take by the hand”).

Words from the same roots

Persianشاه all →

shah

Proto-Indo-European*tek- all →

checkthig

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.