The interjection checkmate originates from the Persian phrase شاه‌مات (šāh māt), meaning “checkmate”, literally translated as “the king is amazed”. شاه, pronounced “shah”, is recognizably the Persian word for king. As the phrase was adopted in Arabic some time before 1000, it was reinterpreted as شَاه مَاتَ (šāh māta), literally “the king is dead”. Over the next few centuries, the customary chess winning interjection traveled with the game into Old French as eschec mat, arriving in Middle English as chekmat before 1350.

“Checkmate, atheists”, meanwhile, originates from a satirical YouTube video from the previous culture war, created by Edward Current in 2007. That specific phrasing wasn’t widespread until satirical Facebook and Tumblr pages devoted to it were created in 2011.