paradisus

Forms

paradīsus m (genitive paradīsī); second declension^[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos, “park, garden; paradise”).^[1][2][3][4] Etymonline traces the Greek word to an Iranian source like Avestan pairidaeza (“enclosure, park”), a compound whose parts mean “around” and “to form a wall”.^[5]

Earliest recorded meaning

The TLL finds it in the Old Latin Bible and in Christian writers from Tertullian on, and only very rarely elsewhere;^[6] Tertullian uses it of the abode of the blessed.^[3][7][4] Gellius had still written the word in Greek, for the game parks the common people called vivaria.^[2][6]

Semantic evolution

The first meaning was a park or orchard: Augustine glosses in paradiso as “in his pleasure garden”, and the Vulgate's Song of Songs uses it of an orchard.^[2] Through the Bible it became the garden of Eden and the abode of the blessed, heaven.^[2][3][8][9]

Medieval Latin also used it for the porch or forecourt of a church, the parvis,^[8][9][10] and in Britain for a walled garden.^[10] The TLL lists Italian paradiso and Old French pareis and parvis among its descendants;^[6] English paradise came from it through Old French.^[5]

Timeline

• c. 160–220 AD – Tertullian uses it of the abode of the blessed.^[3][4]
• c. 383–419/420 AD – Jerome, of the garden of Eden.^[3][4]
• 354–430 AD – Augustine explains it as a pleasure garden.^[7][4]
• late Old English – English paradise, through Old French.^[5]
• Medieval Latin – The porch or forecourt of a church.^[8][10]
• 1293 – A walled garden at Canterbury.^[10]

Meanings

Noun

1. A park, orchard, pleasure garden.^[2][3][7]
2. (Ecclesiastical Latin) The garden of Eden.^[2][3][8]
3. (Ecclesiastical Latin) Paradise, the abode of the blessed, heaven.^[2][3][8][9]
4. (Medieval Latin) The porch or forecourt of a church, the parvis.^[8][9][10]

Related words

• paradīsiacus
• paradīsicola
• hortus
• English paradise

Usage notes

Pliny names a river of Cilicia Paradisus, and a town of Syria had the same name.^[7]

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Lewis, Charlton T.; Short, Charles (1879), A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
3. ^ a b c d e f g h Georges, Karl Ernst (1913–1918), Ausführliches lateinisch-deutsches Handwörterbuch, 8th ed., ed. Heinrich Georges, Hannover; Leipzig: Hahn
4. ^ a b c d e Köbler, Gerhard (2010), Lateinisches Abkunfts- und Wirkungswörterbuch für Altertum und Mittelalter, online ed., koeblergerhard.de
5. ^ a b c Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
6. ^ a b c Thesaurus linguae Latinae (1900–), Leipzig: Teubner; Berlin: De Gruyter; open-access ed., Munich: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften
7. ^ a b c d Gaffiot, Félix (2016), Dictionnaire latin-français, new ed. by Gérard Gréco et al. (Gaffiot 2016), online ed.
8. ^ a b c d e f Niermeyer, J. F. (1976), Mediae Latinitatis Lexicon Minus, Leiden: Brill
9. ^ a b c d Stelten, Leo F. (1995), Dictionary of Ecclesiastical Latin, Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson
10. ^ a b c d e Latham, R. E., D. R. Howlett, R. K. Ashdowne, et al. (1975–2013), Dictionary of Medieval Latin from British Sources, London: British Academy / Oxford University Press