Persian contributions to English

                  Persian delights the English language

                                          

                                             by

                                      

                                   Howard Richler

It appears that a reconciliation has occurred between the USA and Iran; banners in Tehran excoriating the Great Satan might soon be replaced by ones hailing the great rapprochment. So perhaps the time is ripe to take stock of the western world's debt to the Persian language. Until a century ago Persian was the cultural lingua franca in many parts of Asia. Persian was the first language in Muslim civilization to break through Arabic's monopoly on writing, and the writing of poetry in Persian, particularly the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, was established as a tradition in many eastern royal courts.

Whereas, one can argue that before the  20^th century the French language was largely responsible for food terms in English, Persian has been equally providential with many words it bequeathed us for clothing and fabric. For example, the word “scarlet” – from the Persian saqalat  –  arrived in the 13^th century originally referring to any rich cloth, often of a red colour and it would take two centuries before its primary sense was its hue. “Taffeta” arrived English a century later and at first designated a plain-wove glossy silk of various shades but more recently the word designates a bright, lustrous silk. In the 16^th and 17^th centuries  many other Persian clothing-related words were added to English such as “shawl” from shal, “cummerbund” from kamar-band,  “khaki” that ultimately comes from the Persian word for dust, khak and “turban” that derives from dulband. Also coming from the Persian dulband is the flower tulip because of its supposed resemblance to a turban.

As we have already seen words change meanings and this is the case with “pyjamas.” It is first seen in English in the beginning of the 19^th century. Originally it referred to loose trousers usualy of silk or cotton tied around the waist and worn  by both sexes in some Middle East and Asian countries. The word derives from the Persian pay-jama where pay means “foot” and jama means “garment.”

Aside from words changing meaning, we also  see a process where the sound of the words alter dramatically. This is what happened when the Persian saqalat  “rich cloth” was absorbed  into Old French as escarlate before becoming “scarlet” in English. We see a similar transformation with the word “seersucker”.  Although this word sounds like it describes a soothsayer who has been duped, I assure you that this material's origins are  far more wholesome. “Seer ” is a corruption of the Persian sheer “milk” and  “sucker” is a transformation of sharkar, “sugar.”  Hence sheer o shakkar, “milk and sugar” is essentially a metaphor for two things that go well together, although very different.  Originally, sugar was quite rough and coarse with a darkish colour and this contrasted with smooth,white milk. So seersucker is in fact a combination of different colours and different textures found in seersucker which normally has a light stripe and a dark one.

This is not to say that all Persian imports into English relate to clothing and its material.

Speaking of sugar's connection to seersucker, the legions of Alexander the Great were introduced to a Persian delicacy which was composed of a reed garnished with spices, honey and colouring. This Persian treat referring specifically to the crystallized juice of the sugar cane was qand from which we get the word candy. Anther Persian import is “paradise” which derives from a Persian word pairidaeza “enclosed place,” a word  that    blends  pairi “around” and diz, “form.”  In English, the prefix peri- means “about” or  “around” and the diz part is responsible for the words “dairy,” “dough” and the second syllable of “lady.” Greek absorbed the word  as paradeisos with the sense of an enclosed park and in the Greek version of the Bible the word was applied to the Garden of Eden with the sense of “abode of the blessed.” Also, before the year 1000, the OED cites several uses of the word paradise to refer to heaven.

Ultimately, the word chess also derives from Persian. The key move in chess, of course, is putting the king in check and the word chess derives from the plural of the Old French  eschec which was rendered as  esches. But Old French eschec originated from the Persian word for king, shah. When an ancient Persian chess player had his opponent's king trapped, he'd announce shah-mat, “the king is dead,” to which I add “long live loanwords.” As one can discern shah-mat sounds almost identical to “checkmate,” However, the name for the game in Persian is charang which denotes the four members of an army, namely, horses, elephants, foot-soldiers and chariots. On the other hand, the chess piece “rook” has arrived almost uncorrupted into English from the Persian ruk.

It would be fitting if the final agreement between US and Iranian negotiators had been effected while sitting around a divan. At first, a devan in Persian meant a small book, then an account book and eventually an accountant's office. Eventually, it came to refer to some of the official chambers and finally to the long seat found in many of these rooms.

Richler's book Word Play: Arranged & Deranged Wit will be published next spring.