Rook
/rʊk/The piece that moves horizontally or vertically any number of squares; also called the castle.
Each side has two rooks, starting in the corners. It is the piece involved in castling. Despite its tower/castle shape today, its name comes from a Persian word for a war chariot, not a fortress.
Etymology
The rook's name traces to Persian rukh, "chariot" (itself from Sanskrit ratha), reflecting the piece's original role in chaturanga and shatranj as a war chariot on the ancient battlefield. The word passed through Arabic as rukhkh, then into Old French as roc, and finally into English as "rook" by around 1300. Somewhere along that journey, European players began conflating the piece with the Italian word rocca, meaning "fortress" — and the piece's shape shifted accordingly from a chariot to the crenellated tower still used today, which is why the rook is nicknamed "the castle" in casual English despite that never being its formal name. Most European languages reflect this fortress reinterpretation directly rather than the chariot origin: Italian torre, Spanish torre, French tour, and German Turm all simply mean "tower." English is unusual in having kept the older Persian-derived word instead of switching to a "tower" translation.
Translations
| Language | Term | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Arabic | رخ (rukh) loanword | Direct descendant of the original Persian rukh ("chariot"); some dialects instead use qal'a, "fortress." |
| Dutch | toren | Literally "tower." |
| French | tour | Literally "tower." |
| German | Turm | Literally "tower." |
| Italian | torre | Literally "tower." |
| Polish | wieża | Literally "tower." |
| Portuguese | torre | Literally "tower." |
| Russian | ладья (lad'ya) | Literally "boat/barge," a distinct third metaphor beyond chariot or tower. |
| Spanish | torre | Literally "tower," reflecting the fortress reinterpretation, not the Persian chariot origin. |
| Turkish | kale | Literally "castle/fortress." |