paradise

noun

Origin

Old Iranian

pairidaeza — a walled enclosure or garden

Overview

Meaning Now

A place or state imagined as perfect, beautiful, or blissful.

Literal older meaning

a walled enclosure or garden

Language path

Old Iranian → Greek → Latin → French and English

Earliest form

pairidaeza

Earliest period

Old Iranian

Journey

Paradise traces to an old Iranian word for an enclosed park or garden. It passed into Greek paradeisos and then through religious and literary traditions before broadening into the modern idea of a perfect place.

Evolution

Old Iranian
pairidaeza
“an enclosed garden or park”
Greek
paradeisos
“a park or garden”
Modern English
paradise
“an ideal or perfect place”

Connections

Related words

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External references use DefinedTerm semantics.