The arabic word is derived from a Sanskrit word, which means four arms. In Persian folk etymology the word is at times decomposed in such a way that it means hundred worries.
The word and what it refers to (say Z) travelled Asia, Africa and Europe. The currently famous and most known version of Z is its English version. What Z is called in English has it roots in a French word which derives from the Arabic word "shah".
What is the word? What is Z? Any guesses on what the four arms are?
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10 comments:
Chess, Shatranj, Chaturang (4 arms)...
Got it from the "shah" clue. "Shah mat" => "check mate".
Nice q.
I know "Shah" = Emperor
So my guess is
Z = Empire
word = Shat____ (meaning empire in Persian)
The four arms I guess refer to the 4 wings of an empire i.e judicial, admin,defense,tactics...
Want to make a small edit to my previous ans (just had my Eureka Moment)
Shat____ = Shatranj?
rest of my prevoius ans remains the same.
Genius Q...
Shatranj (Arabic/Farsi?) from Chaturangam (Sanskritam) which is chess in English..
Shat= 100...
Four arms of the military? (ratham, ashwam, elephant, infantry)
King
The Sanskrit word for four arms is "chaturbhuja". Since you mentioned the word "shah", I'm guessing the Arabic word is "Shah mat" which means the king is dead (though I'm not sure what the equivalent of chaturbhuja in Persian is). This in English is known as checkmate. The four arms, therefore, would be the Queen, Bishop, Knight and Rook.
Chess, Shatranj??
Shatranj, from the Sanskrit Chaturanga, I believe.
Shatranj, the game of Chess!
Congrats to all who got the answer. Points to Sailesh too for a good try and coming real close to the answer I was hoping to get.
Having decided on chess as my topic, the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shatranj helped!
Just to complete the answer to my Q: Rahul got all the four arms correct! Cheers!
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