14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 115th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

Middle English chekmaten "to checkmate (the king in chess), frustrate," derivative of chekmat checkmate entry 2Middle English chekmat, from chek mate, interjection used in chess to announce that an opponent's king cannot escape, borrowed from Anglo-French eschec mat (continental Old French eschec et mat), from eschec "announcement in chess that an opponent's king is in check, check entry 2" + mat "move by which the king is checkmated, (of a player) having one's king checkmated," borrowed from Arabic māt, borrowed from Persian, "left, at a loss, helpless," variant of mānd, verbal adjective from māndan "to remain," going back to Middle Persian mān-, going back to Old Persian mān-, as in amānaya "(s/he) awaited" — more at mansion

NOTE: Arabic māt has also been taken as application of a native word meaning "(s/he) has died," from the root m-w-t "die." More plausibly this is a folk-etymological analysis of the Persian word, given the predominance of Persian in Arabic chess terminology. See M. E. Moghadam, "A Note on the Etymology of the Word Checkmate," Journal of the American Oriental Society, vol. 58, no. 4 (December, 1938), pp. 662-64.