paradise

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A very beautiful or perfect place.

   The island felt like paradise, with white sand and clear blue water.

2. 2
   noun

   An ideal place for a particular kind of person or activity.

   The market is a paradise for food lovers.

3. 3
   noun

   In religion, the happy place where good souls are believed to go after death.

   They believed the faithful would live forever in paradise.

Simplified etymology

Paradise ultimately comes from Avestan pairidaēza, “enclosure” or “park,” in the ancient Iranian language of the Zoroastrian scriptures. Greek adopted it as paradeisos, “royal enclosed park,” and used it for paradise in the Greek Bible; through Latin it reached Old English, first referring to the Garden of Eden and later to heaven.

From Middle English paradis, paradise, paradys, from Late Old English paradīs, borrowed from Old French paradis, from Latin paradīsus, from Ancient Greek παράδεισος (parádeisos), ultimately from Proto-Iranian *paridayjah. Doublet of parvis. Displaced Old English neorxnawang.

Topics

External links

• Google Images
• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary