Janggi

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A Korean strategy board game similar to chess, played on a grid of intersecting lines where pieces are moved to capture the opponent's general
2. The traditional Korean board game resembling chess, played by two players who move pieces across a board of intersecting lines
3. A strategic two-player game from Korea, akin to chess, in which pieces with distinct movements contest the palace and aim to checkmate the opposing general

Etymology: Janggi is the Korean board game often called Korean chess, and its name is a Korean word, 장기 (將棋), written with the Chinese characters for "general" and "chess piece." English took the term directly from Korean, so it is a loanword rather than a translation of anything in English. The surprise is the relationship with shogi, the Japanese chess game. The two names are doublets: both descend from the same Chinese term for a board game of generals and pieces, and both entered their respective languages from that common root. Shogi is the Japanese reading of the same characters that Korean reads as janggi, so the two games share a name in the sense that they share a single source word, pronounced differently in each language.