with Marc DeSantis
‘PAWN’
The lowly pawn is the most numerous chess piece – and also the piece of most-limited value. It represents the common footsoldier, translated into a wargame, and ‘pawn’ has become a term for anyone employed by someone else as a tool.
Pawn emerges etymologically from the Anglo-Norman poun, which itself comes from the medieval Latin pedo (‘footsoldier’), derived from the Latin pes (‘foot’). In English, the use of ‘pawn’ for the chess piece goes back to the 14th century. ‘Mate in the myd poynt of the chekkere/With a poune errante,’ wrote Geoffrey Chaucer in Dethe Blaunche around 1369.
‘Hippy’ archaeologists