paradise

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈpæɹədaɪs/ (UK)^[1]

Etymology

It is Middle English paradis, borrowed from Old French paradis (“paradise, garden of Eden”),^[2][3][4] from Late Latin paradisus (“a park; the garden of Eden”),^[3][2] from Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos, “a park; royal enclosed garden”),^[3][5][6] of Iranian origin, akin to Avestan pairidaēza (“enclosure, park”),^[7][6] from pairi-, around, and diz, to make a wall,^[3] from PIE Proto-Indo-European *dheigh- (“to form, build”).^[3]

Earliest recorded meaning

Heaven, the abode of the righteous: about 1000 in the OED;^[8] the garden of Eden in late Old English in Etymonline, before 1175 in the OED.^[3][8]

Semantic evolution

Xenophon and others used the Greek word for a royal hunting park in Persia, and the Septuagint for the garden of Eden.^[3] In New Testament translations of Luke 23:43 it meant the place where the souls of the righteous await resurrection, a sense in English from about 1200, and it was extended to the Muslim heaven about 1400.^[3][8] A place of extreme beauty or a blissful state is from about 1300.^[3][8] A park or pleasure-ground is a 17th-century sense.^[4] Bird of paradise is a later naming.^[8]

Timeline

• c. 1000 – heaven.^[8]
• before 1175 – the garden of Eden.^[8]
• c. 1300 – a place of bliss.^[3][8]
• c. 1400 – the Muslim heaven.^[3][8]

Modern meaning

Noun

1. (in some religions) heaven, the place where the good live after death.
2. The garden of Eden.
3. An ideal or idyllic place or state; a place of great beauty.

Word family

• paradisiacal
• imparadise
• paradisaical
• paradisal
• bird of paradise
• fool's paradise
• grains of paradise

Related words

• parvis
• Eden

References

1. ^ Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b Hoad, T. F., ed. (1986), The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
5. ^ Pearsall, Judy, ed. (1998), The New Oxford Dictionary of English, Oxford: Clarendon Press
6. ^ a b Cresswell, Julia (2021), Oxford Dictionary of Word Origins, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
8. ^ a b c d e f g h i Simpson, J. A.; Weiner, E. S. C., eds. (1989), The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press