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.