means Small sticks tipped with a chemical that bursts into flame when struck against a rough surface — also, by extension, things or people that pair well together.

from From the Old French 'mesche,' meaning the wick of a candle or lamp — related to a wider family of words for the cord that carries a flame. For centuries a 'match' was just that: a length of cord soaked to smoulder slowly, used to set off cannons and muskets. Only in the 19th century, once chemists worked out how to put fire on the end of a little stick, did 'match' come to mean the friction-lit splint we know. The other 'match' — a suitable pair, a contest, a marriage — comes from a completely separate Old English root, 'gemæcca,' meaning a mate or companion; the two words simply collided in spelling over time.