Etymological Study of English Words and Middle Persian Roots*

The spread of Iranian words including Persian ones to other languages is not restricted to certain geographical areas or some specific periods of time and it can be found in different areas, several languages and throughout the history. The etymological study of English words as an outstanding language among the European languages reveals that the Persian language enjoys an important share concerning these words. These words were mostly transferred indirectly to English in different periods of time and have been undergone many phonetic and semantic changes. The study of these words indicates that they are not limited to New Persian and the presence of Middle Persian ones is notable. By English words with Middle Persian origins, it means that these words without entering New Persian were transferred to other languages esp. Arabic and Greek and then entered the Middle or New English. In this paper, based on some authentic researches and sources, ten English words with Middle Persian origins have been studied in a descriptive and analytic way.