different between chessman vs chess

English

Etymology

chess +? -man

Noun

chessman (plural chessmen)

1. (chess) A chess piece.
   • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick, chapter 27

     Curious to tell, this imperial negro, Ahasuerus Daggoo, was the Squire of little Flask, who looked like a chess-man beside him.

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Chess_pieces

Anagrams

• Chamness

English

Wikibooks

Pronunciation

• enPR: ch?s, IPA^(key): /t???s/
• Rhymes: -?s

Etymology 1

From Middle English ches, chesse, from Old French eschés, plural of eschec, from Medieval Latin scaccus, from Arabic ????? (š?h, “king [in chess]”), from Persian ???? (š?h, “shah, king”), from Middle Persian ????????????????? (mlk? /š?h/), from Old Persian ???? (XŠ /xš?ya?iya/).

Compare German Schach and Italian scacchi. Compare French échecs (“chess”) and its descendants: Catalan escacs and Dutch schaak. More at check and shah (“king of Persia or Iran”).

Noun

chess (usually uncountable, plural chesses)

1. A board game for two players with each beginning with sixteen chess pieces moving according to fixed rules across a chessboard with the objective to checkmate the opposing king.

Derived terms

Translations

See also

• Appendix:Glossary of chess
• checkers
• draughts
• scacchic

Etymology 2

Origin uncertain; perhaps linked to Etymology 1, above, from the sense of being arranged in rows or lines.

Noun

chess (plural chesses)

1. (now chiefly US) Any of several species of grass in the genus Bromus, generally considered weeds.
   • 2007, Michael Chabon, Gentlemen of the Road, Sceptre 2008, p. 59:

     Hobbled, loudly gourmandizing the dry chess grass, they were guarded by a pair of dismounted soldiers in long, dusty coats [...].

Etymology 3

Compare French châssis (“a framework of carpentry”).

Noun

chess (plural chesses)

1. (military, chiefly in the plural) One of the platforms, consisting of two or more planks dowelled together, for the flooring of a temporary military bridge.
   • 1881, Thomas Wilhelm, A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer

     the balks are laid and covered with chesses to within 1 foot of the trestle

   • 1885, Edward S. Farrow, Farrow's Military Encyclopedia; A Dictionary of Military Knowledge

     Each chess consists of three planks.

References

chess in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.

Anagrams

• hESCs