Etymology
The term Nowruz is a Persian compound-word and consists of:
- now (Old Persian nava) means "new" and has the following cognates, in English new, in Latin novus, German neu, Sanskrit nava, etc. The Persian pronunciation differs in the many dialects of the language: while the eastern dialects have preserved the original diphthong, the western dialects usually pronounce it with a different diphthong, and some colloquial variants (such as the Tehrani accent) pronounce it with a monophtong .
- rōz (also with various pronuciations, such as rūz,rose.rooz rozh, or roj) means "day" in Middle- and Modern Persian. The original meaning of the word, however, was "light". The term is derived from Avestan *rowch-, itself derived from Proto-Indo-European *leuk- (l <-> r and k <-> ch sound changes are common in Indo-European languages), and is related to Sanskrit ruci, Latin lux, Armenian luys and, in fact, English light.
Read more about this topic: Newroz
Famous quotes containing the word etymology:
“Semantically, taste is rich and confusing, its etymology as odd and interesting as that of “style.” But while style—deriving from the stylus or pointed rod which Roman scribes used to make marks on wax tablets—suggests activity, taste is more passive.... Etymologically, the word we use derives from the Old French, meaning touch or feel, a sense that is preserved in the current Italian word for a keyboard, tastiera.”
—Stephen Bayley, British historian, art critic. “Taste: The Story of an Idea,” Taste: The Secret Meaning of Things, Random House (1991)
“The universal principle of etymology in all languages: words are carried over from bodies and from the properties of bodies to express the things of the mind and spirit. The order of ideas must follow the order of things.”
—Giambattista Vico (1688–1744)