parasang
English
editEtymology
editFrom Latin parasanga, from Ancient Greek παρασάγγης (parasángēs), from unattested Old Persian *frasanhva-[1] (indigenously attested only in Middle Iranian onwards); compare Middle Persian [script needed] (frasang /plsng/, “frasang (4 Roman miles)”) (whence Persian فرسنگ (farsang)). Doublet of farsang.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editparasang (plural parasangs or parasang)
- A historical Iranian unit of itinerant distance used throughout the Western Mediterranean and the Middle East in antiquity, originally the distance travelled in one hour, and generally assumed to be equivalent to about six kilometres. [from 16th c.]
- 1624, Democritus Junior [pseudonym; Robert Burton], The Anatomy of Melancholy: […], 2nd edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Printed by John Lichfield and James Short, for Henry Cripps, →OCLC:
- To see so much difference betwixt words and deeds, so many parasangs betwixt tongue and heart […].
- 2013, Lucy Renner Jones, translating Annemarie Schwarzenbach, Death in Persia, Seagull Books 2013, p. 44:
- We were told that we still had to drive six or sixty parasang.
Translations
edithistorical Iranian unit of distance
References
edit- MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “frasang”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 32
- ^ Hinz, Walther (1975) “*frasanhva-”, in Altiranisches Sprachgut der Nebenüberlieferungen (Göttinger Orientforschungen, Reihe III, Iranica; 3)[1] (in German), Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, page 97
Anagrams
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- English terms derived from Latin
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- English terms derived from Old Persian
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- English countable nouns
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- en:Units of measure