Persian edit

Etymology edit

This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.
Particularly: “The modern sense of "challenge" is not found in Steingass, and the word in general seems quite rare in classical sources. Might the modern usage be influenced by English challenge? Compare تنش (taneš, tension).”

چال (čâl, seemingly a variant of چل (čal), present stem of چلیدن (čalidan, to walk, to go)) +‎ ـش (-eš).

Pronunciation edit

 

Readings
Classical reading? čāliš
Dari reading? čāliš
Iranian reading? čâleš
Tajik reading? čoliš

Noun edit

چالش (čâleš)

  1. challenge, struggle
  2. (archaic) exertion in battle; martial conduct; (loosely) battle
    • 1188, Niẓāmī Ganjavī, اسکندرنامه [Iskandarnāma]‎[1]:
      بفرمود شه تا دلیران روم
      نمایند چالش در آن مرز و بوم
      bifarmūd šah tā dalērān-i rūm
      nimāyand čāliš dar ān marz u būm
      The king ordered that the brave men of Rome
      Should display their martial gait in that borderland and country.
      (Classical Persian transliteration)
  3. (obsolete, original sense) proud and sauntering gait

References edit

  • Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892) “چالش”, in A Comprehensive Persian–English dictionary, London: Routledge & K. Paul
  • Nourai, Ali (2011) An Etymological Dictionary of Persian, English and other Indo-European Languages, page 260