According to the Oxford Companion to Chess "The name comes from the Sanskrit ratha, a chariot, through Persian and Arabic rukh. Most European languages adapted the word by homophony through the Italian rocco, tower, which was thus translated.The only other language than English that uses a direct transliteration is Icelandic, with hrokur."
Definition
homophonic - having the same sound
Oxford Companion to Chess, 2nd Edition, Hooper and Whyld, 1992 Oxford University Press
Rook is borrowed from persian language and means (rokh) chariot.
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So Rook comes from chariot? I see.....
So we are supposed to use "Rook" as castle nowadays is mainly used when referring to the verb.
Am I right? Is Rook to be the word?
because u call it so
In English it's a rook.
In Spanish it's a tower.
I've never heard it be called a castle.
are you sure? I've heard plenty of people calling the Rook a castle....
My dad always wanted me to call it a rook (and I did) because it is confused with "Castling".
yea, they might have spent the effort to find another name for the Castle to prevent confusion with the term castling.
It originates from other languages, I believe.
Chess came to Europe from Persia; Europeans changed some names and some rules. The pawn got an extra leap on its first move, necessitating en passant, and the queen became a monster. The chariot (rokh) became a tower, castle, or rook.
Posts 23 and 26 above are correct.
I believe it comes from Arabic, "ruq" or something similar
well if it is a rook then why is it called castling? why not call it rooking, towering or charioting? i think the confusion is not in the term castle but the whole castling thingy. i from now on will call it rooking as that would make the most sense and would cease all this confusion!
are you sure? I've heard plenty of people calling the Rook a castle....
Yes there is one particular guy who keep calling it a castle also a chariot,
any comment you would like to point out rich ?
According to the Oxford Companion to Chess "The name comes from the Sanskrit ratha, a chariot, through Persian and Arabic rukh. Most European languages adapted the word by homophony through the Italian rocco, tower, which was thus translated.The only other language than English that uses a direct transliteration is Icelandic, with hrokur."
Definition
homophonic - having the same sound
Oxford Companion to Chess, 2nd Edition, Hooper and Whyld, 1992 Oxford University Press
Interestingly, although the rook is called "torre" in portuguese/spanish/italian (i.e. "tower"), the words for castling on these languages are "roque"/"enroque"/"arroco", which clearly have the same origin as rook. The word used for the piece in english is used for the move on latin languages.
Why is a castle called a Rook? Why don't they just give one name for it?
What's the problem with it having two names? Everything has two names.
Even you do.
The castle makes the sound "rooook" when it moves.
Why is a castle called a Rook? Why don't they just give one name for it?
Dunno about you guys but I call them Towers 
I call them those little round things, but I'm still trying to learn.
In one of the languages in my country ( for some reason we have 11 ), "rook" means smoke, and if you have the right stuff to smoke, then after a while you don't mind what people call the pieces.