Etymology and concept history thumb|upright=2|The luxurious palace and gardens of Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (ruled 668–631 BCE) at Nineveh, with original color reconstitution. Irrigation canals radiate from an aqueduct. The king appears under the porch. British Museum.British Museum notice in 2018 temporary exhibit "I am Ashurbanipal king of the world, king of Assyria" thumb|left|Incense burner, sometimes called a "hill censer" because of its shape (Mountains of Paradise, Bo Mountain, a paradise inhabited by immortals and mythical animals). Eastern Han dynasty, 25–220 CE. From China. Victoria and Albert Museum The word "paradise" entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, from Greek parádeisos (παράδεισος), from an Old Iranian form, from Proto-Iranian*parādaiĵah- "walled enclosure", whence Old Persian 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎹𐎭𐎠𐎶 p-r-d-y-d-a-m /paridaidam/, Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌⸱𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬰𐬀 pairi-daêza-. The literal meaning of this Eastern Old Iranian language word is "walled (enclosure)", from pairi- 'around' (cognate with Greek περί, English peri- of identical meaning) and -diz "to make, form (a wall), build" (cognate with Greek τεῖχος 'wall'). The word's etymology is ultimately derived from a PIE root *dheigʷ "to stick and set up (a wall)", and *per "around".New Oxford American DictionaryR. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 1151. thumb|Paradise by Jan Bruegel, circa 1620 By the 6th/5th century BCE, the Old Iranian word had been borrowed into Assyrian pardesu "domain". It subsequently came to indicate the expansive walled gardens of the First Persian Empire, and was subsequently borrowed into Greek as παράδεισος parádeisos "park for animals" in the Anabasis of the early 4th century BCE Athenian Xenophon, Aramaic as pardaysa "royal park", and Hebrew as פַּרְדֵּס pardes, "orchard" (appearing thrice in the Tanakh; in the Song of Solomon (), Ecclesiastes () and Nehemiah ()). In the Septuagint (3rd–1st centuries BCE), Greek παράδεισος parádeisos was used to translate both Hebrew פרדס pardes and Hebrew גן ', "garden" (e.g. (, ): it is from this usage that the use of "paradise" to refer to the Garden of Eden derives. The same usage also appears in Arabic and in the Quran as firdaws فردوس.
Etymology and concept history thumb|upright=2|The luxurious palace and gardens of Neo-Assyrian king Ashurbanipal (ruled 668–631 BCE) at Nineveh, with original color reconstitution. Irrigation canals radiate from an aqueduct. The king appears under the porch. British Museum.British Museum notice in 2018 temporary exhibit "I am Ashurbanipal king of the world, king of Assyria" thumb|left|Incense burner, sometimes called a "hill censer" because of its shape (Mountains of Paradise, Bo Mountain, a paradise inhabited by immortals and mythical animals). Eastern Han dynasty, 25–220 CE. From China. Victoria and Albert Museum The word "paradise" entered English from the French paradis, inherited from the Latin paradisus, from Greek parádeisos (παράδεισος), from an Old Iranian form, from Proto-Iranian*parādaiĵah- "walled enclosure", whence Old Persian 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎹𐎭𐎠𐎶 p-r-d-y-d-a-m /paridaidam/, Avestan 𐬞𐬀𐬌𐬭𐬌⸱𐬛𐬀𐬉𐬰𐬀 pairi-daêza-. The literal meaning of this Eastern Old Iranian language word is "walled (enclosure)", from pairi- 'around' (cognate with Greek περί, English peri- of identical meaning) and -diz "to make, form (a wall), build" (cognate with Greek τεῖχος 'wall'). The word's etymology is ultimately derived from a PIE root *dheigʷ "to stick and set up (a wall)", and *per "around".New Oxford American DictionaryR. S. P. Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2009, p. 1151. thumb|Paradise by Jan Bruegel, circa 1620 By the 6th/5th century BCE, the Old Iranian word had been borrowed into Assyrian pardesu "domain". It subsequently came to indicate the expansive walled gardens of the First Persian Empire, and was subsequently borrowed into Greek as παράδεισος parádeisos "park for animals" in the Anabasis of the early 4th century BCE Athenian Xenophon, Aramaic as pardaysa "royal park", and Hebrew as פַּרְדֵּס pardes "orchard" (appearing thrice in the Tanakh; in the Song of Solomon (), Ecclesiastes () and Nehemiah ()). In the Septuagint (3rd–1st centuries BCE), Greek παράδεισος parádeisos was used to translate both Hebrew פרדס pardes and Hebrew גן ', "garden" (e.g. (, ): it is from this usage that the use of "paradise" to refer to the Garden of Eden derives. ,The same usage also appears in Arabic and in the Quran as firdaws فردوس.