peri

Etymology

It is borrowed from Persian پری (parī, “fairy, jinn, angel”),^{[2][3][4][5][6][1]} from Middle Persian parīk (“evil genius, malevolent sprite”),^[2][4][5] from Avestan pairikā, one of the beautiful but evil female demons whom Ahriman sent to cause comets, eclipses, drought and failed crops.^[2][5][3] The American Heritage Dictionary takes the Avestan word from Proto-Iranian *parikā (“woman of low status, concubine, witch”), perhaps related to Old Irish airech (“concubine”),^[5] and Merriam-Webster relates it to Latin paelex (“concubine”).^[4] The OED compares French péri (1697) and notes that it is unclear why the French and English forms have e in the first syllable, comparing Turkish peri;^[2] Wiktionary takes the English word through Ottoman Turkish.^[1] The word is not related to fairy.^[2][3][7] Hobson-Jobson cites a derivation from the Persian word for a feather or wing, but calls it very doubtful.^[7]

Earliest recorded meaning

In Persian mythology, a superhuman being, originally an evil female spirit and later a benevolent one: 1739, in J. Morgan's lives of eastern rulers.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to 1777,^[3] when, according to Onions, it was anglicized in Richardson's Persian dictionary.^[8]

Semantic evolution

The OED notes that in New Persian literature from the 9th and 10th centuries on, a parī is usually a beautiful, kindly being of human shape with wings, most often female.^[2] English took the word in this later sense:^[2][3] Onions says it was first made popular by the English translation (1786) of Beckford's Vathek, in the plural Peries,^[8][9] and Weekley and Hobson-Jobson credit Byron, Moore and Southey with making it familiar.^[9][7] Etymonline compares the change of meaning to that of fairy.^[3] From 1813, in Byron's Bride of Abydos, peri also meant a beautiful or graceful person.^[2][6]

Timeline

• 1739 – a superhuman being of Persian mythology.^[2][4] Etymonline dates the word to 1777.^[3]
• 1786 – the plural Peries, in the English translation of Beckford's Vathek.^[8]
• 1813 – a beautiful or graceful person, in Byron.^[2]

Meanings

Noun

1. In Persian mythology, one of a race of beautiful supernatural beings, originally thought of as evil and later as good, descended from fallen angels and kept out of paradise until they have done penance.^[4][10][2]
2. A beautiful, fairy-like person or creature.^[10][2][6]

Related words

• fairy

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 m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
4. ^ a b c d e f Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
5. ^ a b c d The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
6. ^ a b c Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c Yule, Henry; Burnell, A. C. (1903), Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, new ed. by William Crooke, London: John Murray
8. ^ a b c Onions, C. T., ed. (1966), The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, Oxford: Clarendon Press
9. ^ a b Weekley, Ernest (1921), An Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, London: John Murray
10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins