stalemate: [18] Stalemate is a compound noun, based on the now obsolete stale ‘stalemate’. And this in turn was probably borrowed from Anglo- Norman estale ‘fixed position’, a derivative of Old French estaler ‘halt’, which also underlies English stale and stall. So etymologically, when you reach stalemate in chess, you have to ‘stand’ or ‘halt’ where you are, going neither forward nor back.
stalemate (n.)
1765, in chess, from stale "stalemate" (early 15c.) + mate (n.2) "checkmate." Middle English stale is probably from Anglo-French estale "standstill" (see stall (n.2)). A misnomer, because a stale is not a mate. "In England from the 17th c. to the beginning of the 19th c. the player who received stalemate won the game" [OED]. Figurative sense is recorded from 1885. As a verb from 1765; figurative from 1861.
实用例句
1. Efforts to break the stalemate in the peace talks continue.
