Dictionary WikiPersian Words in English: From Paradise to Pajamas
A Quick Starting Point
English has borrowed from Persian more often than many speakers suspect. Some of these words came directly, but many took long, indirect routes through Arabic, Turkish, Hindi-Urdu, French, or Latin before settling into English. That winding history makes the Persian layer of English easy to miss.
For centuries, Persian served as a language of poetry, administration, scholarship, and courtly culture across large parts of Central Asia and South Asia, not only in what is now Iran. Its reach helps explain why ordinary English words such as paradise, chess, pajamas, and khaki carry traces of Persian-speaking civilization, trade, religion, literature, and daily life.
Early Persian Contact with the West
The Persian contribution to English begins far back in classical history. During and after the Persian Wars of the 5th century BCE, Old Persian vocabulary found its way into Greek. Greek authors, including Herodotus and Xenophon, recorded Persian terms and ideas for Western readers. From Greek, some of those words moved into Latin and then, much later, into English.
Satrap, meaning a provincial governor, goes back to Old Persian xšaθrapāvan by way of Greek. Tiara also passed into Greek from Old Persian before eventually reaching English. Magic has an even older religious connection: it comes through Latin magus, from the Old Persian term for a Zoroastrian priest. These early borrowings show that contact between Persian and European languages was already under way long before the Christian era.
How a Garden Became Paradise
One of the most powerful Persian-derived words in English is paradise. Its source is Old Persian pairidaēza, meaning an enclosed garden. Greek adopted it as paradeisos, a word used for the grand walled gardens associated with Persian kings. In the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament, it was used for the Garden of Eden. Through Christian usage, the word later came to refer to heaven.
The change in meaning is striking. A term for a carefully enclosed royal garden, filled with water channels, trees, and flowers, became one of English’s central words for blessedness after death. Greek visitors were impressed enough by Persian garden design that their borrowed word for it eventually became a major religious term in the West. Park may also be distantly linked to the same Persian root.
Fabric, Dress, and Persian Loanwords
Pajamas, also spelled pyjamas, comes from Persian pā-jāma, literally “leg garment.” English received the word through Hindi-Urdu during the British colonial period in India. Loose trousers were widely worn there, and British colonists adopted both the clothing and the name. Over time, English narrowed the meaning to the nightclothes now called pajamas.
Several textile and clothing words have similar histories. Shawl comes from Persian shāl, a word associated with fine woolen garments from Kashmir. Khaki derives from Persian khāk, meaning dust or earth, through Urdu; the dusty color made it useful for military uniforms in British India. Seersucker comes from Persian shīr-o-shakar, “milk and sugar,” a reference to the fabric’s smooth and puckered stripes. Taffeta is from Persian tāfta, meaning twisted or woven, while sash is traced to Persian shast, a turban cloth.
Persian Traces in Food Vocabulary
Food words often travel with crops, recipes, and trade. English pistachio comes from Persian pista. Peach ultimately goes back to Persian through Latin persicum, “Persian fruit.” Lemon and lime also have Persian etymological links, though both passed through Arabic on the way.
Pilaf, the rice dish, has Persian roots in polow. Spinach comes from Persian aspanākh, moving through Arabic and Latin before entering English. Sherbet is related to sharbat, a sweet drink. Saffron comes from Arabic za'farān, probably from a Persian source. Julep derives from Persian golāb, rosewater. Candy may come from Persian qand, meaning sugar, itself from Sanskrit.
Markets, Merchants, and Games
Bazaar is from Persian bāzār, meaning marketplace. English speakers encountered it in 16th-century travel writing about Middle Eastern markets, and it is now a normal English word for a busy market, charity sale, or collection of varied goods. Caravan comes from Persian kārvān, the word for the organized bands of traders who crossed long-distance routes such as the Silk Road.
The game of chess brought several Persian terms into European languages. Checkmate comes from Persian shāh māt, “the king is dead” or “the king is helpless.” Chess itself comes through Old French esches, ultimately from Persian shāh, meaning king. The rook, a chess piece, is from Persian rokh. Even financial check descends from chess language, from the idea of checking or stopping an opponent.
Learning, Medicine, and Technical Terms
During the Islamic Golden Age, from the 8th to the 14th centuries, Persian scholars played a major role in mathematics, medicine, astronomy, and other sciences. Their work often circulated in Arabic and then in Latin translation, so English sometimes treats these words as Arabic even when Persian people, places, or older Persian sources are part of the story.
Algorithm comes from the Latinized name of the Persian mathematician al-Khwārizmī. Algebra is from Arabic al-jabr, but Persian mathematicians contributed greatly to its development. In chemistry and medicine, borax comes from Persian būrah, and arsenic is linked to Persian zarnik, meaning “golden.” Talisman reached English through Arabic and Greek from Persian.
Plants, Animals, and Natural Materials
Jackal comes from Persian shaghāl through Turkish. Musk derives from Persian moshk, from Sanskrit, and refers to the aromatic substance associated with the musk deer. Leopard has ancient roots that involve Persian as well; the pard element may be connected with Persian pars, a panther-like animal.
Plant names also preserve Persian routes into English. Jasmine comes from Persian yāsaman. Lilac is from Persian nīlak, “bluish,” through Arabic and Spanish. Orange traveled from Sanskrit through Persian nārang, then Arabic, Spanish, and English, dropping its initial “n” along the way. Tulip is usually traced through Turkish, with links to Persian delband, meaning turban.
Poetry, Titles, and Cultural Terms
English also uses terms from Persian literary and artistic culture. The ghazal is a poetic form, and the rubai is a quatrain, familiar to many English readers through Omar Khayyam’s Rubaiyat. Edward FitzGerald’s 1859 translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam had a large influence on how English-speaking audiences imagined Persian poetry.
Dervish, meaning a Sufi mendicant, comes from Persian darvīsh, “poor” or “mendicant.” The expression “whirling dervish” later became an English idiom for someone moving or acting with frantic energy. Shah, meaning king, entered English as a royal title and also lies behind chess vocabulary. Purdah, from parda meaning curtain, came into English through British contact with South Asia and refers to seclusion.
Common Words with Persian Backgrounds
Some English words with Persian roots no longer feel foreign at all. Bronze may come from Persian birinj, meaning brass. Scarlet reached English through Arabic and Latin and may be connected with Persian saqalāt, a kind of fine cloth. Rank, when used of a strong smell, may also have Persian connections.
Serendipity has a more literary path. Horace Walpole coined it in 1754 from “Serendip,” an old Persian name for Sri Lanka, drawing on a Persian fairy tale about three princes. Assassin entered English through French and Arabic, with roots tied to a Persian sect. Exchequer ultimately traces back to Persian shāh through chess terminology.
How Persian Words Reached English
Persian vocabulary usually did not move into English in a straight line. Many words changed language several times before arriving. Arabic transmitted Persian-linked learning and scientific vocabulary. Turkish carried Persian cultural terms through the Ottoman world. Hindi-Urdu passed on words from the Indo-Persian world. French and Latin brought in terms that medieval European scholars had encountered in translation.
British rule in India became one of the major channels. The Mughal Empire had used Persian as a language of administration and literature, so British officials and travelers met a South Asian vocabulary already shaped by Persian. Through this Indo-Persian bridge, words such as khaki, pajamas, verandah, and jungle entered English, the latter two via Hindi from Persian.
What These Borrowings Show
Persian loanwords in English cover a remarkable spread of life: sacred ideas such as paradise, household words such as pajamas, commercial places such as the bazaar, and strategic terms such as checkmate. They are small records of contact across empires, trade routes, religious traditions, courts, gardens, and libraries. English is a mixed language by nature, and Persian has helped shape the words English speakers use for color, food, clothing, poetry, science, games, and the world around them.