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Eid

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Etymology and origin of the English word Eid

Confidence
Established
Formation
Borrowing, Clipping
First attested
1698 John Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia More words from the 17th century
Borrowed from
Persian عید
Ultimate origin
Classical Syriac ܥܐܕܐ

Pronunciation

Etymology

It is borrowed from Persian عید (ʿīd) and its source borrowed from Arabic عيد (ʿīd, “festival, feast”),[2][1] from Classical Syriac ܥܐܕܐ (ʿīḏā, “festival”) or its Aramaic source,[2][1] from an Aramaic verb meaning "to turn, to repeat", the feast being named for its regular return.[2] The American Heritage Dictionary instead derives the Aramaic word from a verb meaning "to fix a time".[3] In later use Eid is also short for Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr.[2][4]

Earliest recorded meaning

An Islamic festival: 1698, in John Fryer's A New Account of East-India and Persia, where he confuses the feast of sacrifice with the Zoroastrian New Year festival.[2]

Semantic evolution

In Persian the word is used of other festivals too, not only Muslim ones, and the OED thinks that the Persian pronunciation, with a diphthong, may lie behind early English spellings such as aede and eid.[2] The full names of the two great feasts are recorded later in English: Eid-al-Fitr, the feast at the end of Ramadan, from 1823, and Eid-al-Adha, the feast at the end of the hajj, from 1859.[2] In British English Eid alone usually means Eid al-Fitr.[4]

Timeline

  • 1698 – an Islamic festival, in Fryer's account of travels in India and Persia.[2]
  • 1823 – Eid-al-Fitr, the feast ending Ramadan.[2]
  • 1859 – Eid-al-Adha, the feast of sacrifice at the end of the hajj.[2]

Meanings

Noun

  1. Either of the two chief festivals of Islam, Eid al-Fitr or Eid al-Adha: The family gathered for a big meal at Eid.[2][3]
  2. Especially in British use, Eid al-Fitr, the feast that ends the fast of Ramadan.[4][2]
  • Eid al-Fitr
  • Eid al-Adha

References

  1. ^ a b c Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  4. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins

Related etymologies

Cite this entry

“Eid.” Etymologically, 4 Nov. 2026, etymologically.com/en/Eid. Accessed 4 Nov. 2026.

Last edited on . ·