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Alfil. Jumps two diagonally. Arabic for the elephant.[All Comments] [Add Comment or Rating]
Uri Bruck wrote on Tue, Sep 10, 2002 05:48 PM UTC:Good ★★★★
When names move from one language to another, then articles like the
definite article sometimes just stick to them. I've seen quite a few place
names in the south of Spain, for instance, that have names beginign with
'Al-', obviously the Arabic definite article.
'Alfil' is the name the piece acquired in Europe. The fact that the text
mentions it is good enough.
The Arabic 'fil' is also related to the Hebrew 'pil', which can be found
in the Mishna, dating back to the first couple of centuries C.E., and
which the Even-Shoshan Hebrew dictionary traces back to teh Akkadian
'pilu'.
The chess piece was obviously named for the Arabic word.