Words from Persian
13 words in Curio passed through Persian on their way into English.
About Persian
Western Iranian language of the Iranian branch of the Indo-Iranian subdivision of the Indo-European family · spoken today
Where
Fars in southwestern Iran → Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and the wider cultural sphere of Greater Iran
When
Speakers
70M
as of 2019
Speakers, Wikidata figure for 2019
Family path
- Middle Persian
- Persian
- ArabicFrenchOttoman TurkishHindustaniUrduLatin
- English
Where it came from
Modern Persian continues Middle Persian, an official language of the Sasanian Empire (224 to 651 CE), which itself continues Old Persian, used in the Achaemenid Empire (550 to 330 BCE). It originated in the region of Fars in southwestern Iran. New Persian literature was first recorded in the ninth century, after the Muslim conquest of Persia.
Source: Wikipedia
Family
Persian grew out of Middle Persian.
The words, A to Z
- azure
A sky-blue word that started life as a stone from a mountain region in Afghanistan.
- candy
That sweet word in your mouth traveled through four languages before it ever touched your tongue.
- cheddar
The slang term for money got its name from something you'd find on a cheese board.
- ghoul
This word for a grave-robbing demon traveled through three languages before it started haunting English.
- jackal
This scavenging canine carried its name across four languages before slipping into English.
- khaki
A word for dust-colored cloth that once marched across an empire.
- lemonade
A word that traveled from a citrus grove all the way through the grammar of French suffixes before landing in your summer glass.
- mummy
One little word hides two completely unrelated stories — one about preserved bodies, the other about the first word many of us ever say.
- pasha
A title that once made Ottoman officials sit up straighter, its own origins as tangled as the empire it served.
- sepoy
A soldier's title that marched from Persian courts to British colonial armies, changing hands with every empire it served.
- taffeta
This crisp, shimmery fabric carries a name that traveled from Persia through Latin and French before landing in English.
- tambourine
This jingly instrument's name shrank its way into English from a much bigger word for drum.
- tulip
This flower's name once described what people wrapped around their heads, not what grew in a garden.