alfil
bishop (the chess piece that moves diagonally)pieza de ajedrez que se mueve en diagonal
Comes from Arabic
الفِيل
al-fīl
“the elephant”«el elefante»
Arabic today says
فِيل
fīl
And it still does
The article
Spanish kept the Arabic article al- glued to the word.
Arabic itself had taken it from Persian.
The story
In early chess this piece was a war elephant (Persian pīl, Arabic fīl), and in Arabic it is still called that.En el ajedrez antiguo esta pieza era un elefante de guerra (persa pīl, árabe fīl), y en árabe se sigue llamando así.
In a sentence
Cambió su alfil por un caballo.
He traded his bishop for a knight.
بَادَلَ فِيلَهُ بِحِصَان.
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