Chilminar

English

Alternative forms

• Chelminar, Tchelminar, Chihil Minar, Chil Minar, Chehel Menar, Chelmenar, Chel Menar, Cheminar, Techelminar

Etymology

From Spanish Chilminara in the French translation of De Silva Figueroa's account of his travels in Persia from 1617 to 1619, from Persian چهل منار (čehel menâr, “ruins of Persepolis”), from چهل (čehel, “forty”) + منار (menâr, “minarets”), from the appearance of the ruins.

Proper noun

Chilminar

1. (historical, obsolete) Synonym of Persepolis, particularly its modern ruins.
   • 1771, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1st ed., volume II, page 183:

     CHILMINAR, Chelminar, or Tchelminar, the moſt beautiful piece of architecture remaining of all antiquity, being the ruins of the famous palace of Perſepolis, to which Alexander the Great, in a drunken fit, ſet fire, at the inſtigation of Thais the courtezan...