The Apple in Paradise

Abstract

The English word “paradise” is a transliteration of the old Persian word pairidaeza, referring to a walled garden. Cyrus the Younger (424–401 BC), a Persian king, called his walled-in garden pairidaeza, which is a simple combination of pairi (around) and daeza (wall). Pairidaeza comes to us through Xenophon, the Greek writer and historian, who heard it in 401 BC in Persia, where he fought with Greek mercenaries. Xenophon used the Greek word “paradeisoi” for garden (Lord, 1970). This became the Latin paradisus, and first appeared in Middle English as paradis in 1175 (Oxford Dict., 1933).