mat: English has two distinct words mat. The one meaning ‘small carpet’ [OE] is ultimately of Latin origin (matta), but it found its way into the West Germanic group of languages in prehistoric times, and has produced German matte and Dutch mat as well as English mat. Mat (or matt) meaning ‘dull’ [17] comes from French mat ‘dead’, which is also the source of the chess term mate. => mate[mat etymology, mat origin, 英语词源]