Persian

How to spell persian

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce persian

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does persian mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the historic land of Persia, now Iran, or to its people, culture, and crafts.
2. nounThe Iranian language spoken in Iran and neighbouring regions, also known as Farsi.
3. nounA breed of long-haired domestic cat with a flat face and dense coat.

Persian in a sentence

• adjective

  The museum displayed an intricate persian carpet woven centuries ago.

• noun

  He spent two years learning persian before moving to Tehran.

• noun

  Their fluffy white persian needed daily grooming.

• adjective

  She studied persian architecture during her year abroad.

• noun

  The poem was translated from persian into English.

• noun

  The breeder specialised in raising show-quality persian kittens.

Where does persian come from?

Language of origin: Greek

This word traces back to Persis, the ancient Greek name for the region the Greeks knew as the heartland of a great empire, which itself came from the Old Persian word Parsa, the name the people used for their own homeland and stock. The Greeks passed the name to Latin as Persia, and from there it travelled through Old French into English during the medieval period. The suffix '-ian' was added in English to form an adjective and noun meaning 'of or relating to Persia', following the same pattern seen in words like Italian and Egyptian. Although the modern country has been called Iran officially since the 1930s, the older word survives in many fixed phrases, such as Persian carpet, Persian cat, and the Persian language. The spelling trap sits in the ending: it is '-sian', pronounced like 'zhun', not the '-sion' that ends so many other words.

How the word is built

• Pers- (from Persia, the historic name for the land of Iran)
• -ian (adjective and noun suffix meaning 'belonging to')