cờ vua

Vietnamese

Etymology

From cờ (“board game with pieces or tokens”) +‎ vua (“monarch”), ultimately a calque of Persian شاه (šâh, “king”) (> شاهمات (šâh-mât, “checkmate”)), through a European source like French échec (“check”), échecs (“chess”). Compare cờ tướng (“xiangqi”, literally “general board game”).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kəː˨˩ vuə˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kəː˦˩ vuə˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kəː˨˩ vuə˧˧] ~ [kəː˨˩ juə˧˧]

Noun

cờ vua

1. chess (two-player board game)