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Definition of paradise - 12 dictionary results

par⋅a⋅dise

[par-uh-dahys, -dahyz]
–noun
1. heaven, as the final abode of the righteous.
2. an intermediate place for the departed souls of the righteous awaiting resurrection.
3. (often initial capital letter) Eden (def. 1).
4. a place of extreme beauty, delight, or happiness.
5. a state of supreme happiness; bliss.
6. Architecture.
a. parvis.
b. an enclosure beside a church, as an atrium or cloister.
7. (initial capital letter, italics) Italian, Pa⋅ra⋅di⋅so [pah-rah-dee-zaw] . the third and concluding part of Dante's Divine Comedy, depicting heaven, through which he is guided by Beatrice. Compare inferno (def. 3), purgatory (def. 2).

Origin:
bef. 1000; ME, OE paradīs < LL paradīsus < Gk parádeisos park, pleasure-grounds < Iranian; cf. Avestan pairi-daēza enclosure

Par⋅a⋅dise

[par-uh-dahys, -dahyz]
–noun
a town in N California. 22,571.

par⋅vis

[pahr-vis]
–noun
1. a vacant enclosed area in front of a church.
2. a colonnade or portico in front of a church.
Also called paradise.


Origin:
1350–1400; ME < MF; OF pare(v)is < LL paradīsus church courtyard, orig. the one before St. Peter's, Rome. See paradise
par·a·dise   (pār'ə-dīs', -dīz')   
n.  
  1. often Paradise The Garden of Eden.
  2. Christianity
    1. The abode of righteous souls after death; heaven.
    2. An intermediate resting place for righteous souls awaiting the Resurrection.
  3. A place of ideal beauty or loveliness.
  4. A state of delight.

[Middle English paradis, from Old French, from Late Latin paradīsus, from Greek paradeisos, garden, enclosed park, paradise, from Avestan pairidaēza-, enclosure, park : pairi-, around; see per1 in Indo-European roots + daēzō, wall; see dheigh- in Indo-European roots.]
par'a·di·si'a·cal (-dĭ-sī'ə-kəl, -zī'-), par'a·di·si'ac (-āk), par'a·di·sa'i·cal (-dĭ-sā'ĭ-kəl, -zā'-), par'a·di·sa'ic (-ĭk), par'a·dis'al (-dī'səl, -zəl) adj., par'a·di·si'a·cal·ly, par'a·di·sa'i·cal·ly, par'a·dis'al·ly adv.
Word History: The history of paradise is an extreme example of amelioration, the process by which a word comes to refer to something better than what it used to refer to. The old Iranian language Avestan had a noun pairidaēza-, "a wall enclosing a garden or orchard," which is composed of pairi-, "around," and daēza- "wall." The adverb and preposition pairi is related to the equivalent Greek form peri, as in perimeter. Daēza- comes from the Indo-European root *dheigh-, "to mold, form, shape." Zoroastrian religion encouraged maintaining arbors, orchards, and gardens, and even the kings of austere Sparta were edified by seeing the Great King of Persia planting and maintaining his own trees in his own garden. Xenophon, a Greek mercenary soldier who spent some time in the Persian army and later wrote histories, recorded the pairidaēza- surrounding the orchard as paradeisos, using it not to refer to the wall itself but to the huge parks that Persian nobles loved to build and hunt in. This Greek word was used in the Septuagint translation of Genesis to refer to the Garden of Eden, whence Old English eventually borrowed it around 1200.

Paradise

Par"a*dise\, n. [OE. & F. paradis, L. paradisus, fr. Gr. para`deisos park, paradise, fr. Zend pairida[=e]za an inclosure; pairi around (akin to Gr. ?) + diz to throw up, pile up; cf. Skr. dih to smear, and E. dough. Cf. Parvis.]

1. The garden of Eden, in which Adam and Eve were placed after their creation.

2. The abode of sanctified souls after death.

To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise. --Luke xxiii. 43.

It sounds to him like her mother's voice, Singing in Paradise. --Longfellow.

3. A place of bliss; a region of supreme felicity or delight; hence, a state of happiness.

The earth Shall be all paradise. --Milton.

Wrapt in the very paradise of some creative vision. --Beaconsfield.

4. (Arch.) An open space within a monastery or adjoining a church, as the space within a cloister, the open court before a basilica, etc.

5. A churchyard or cemetery. [Obs.] --Oxf. Gloss.

Fool's paradise. See under Fool, and Limbo.

Grains of paradise. (Bot.) See Melequeta pepper, under Pepper.

Paradise bird. (Zo["o]l.) Same as Bird of paradise. Among the most beautiful species are the superb (Lophorina superba); the magnificent (Diphyllodes magnifica); and the six-shafted paradise bird (Parotia sefilata). The long-billed paradise birds (Epimachin[ae]) also include some highly ornamental species, as the twelve-wired paradise bird (Seleucides alba), which is black, yellow, and white, with six long breast feathers on each side, ending in long, slender filaments. See Bird of paradise in the Vocabulary.

Paradise fish (Zo["o]l.), a beautiful fresh-water Asiatic fish (Macropodus viridiauratus) having very large fins. It is often kept alive as an ornamental fish.

Paradise flycatcher (Zo["o]l.), any flycatcher of the genus Terpsiphone, having the middle tail feathers extremely elongated. The adult male of T. paradisi is white, with the head glossy dark green, and crested.

Paradise grackle (Zo["o]l.), a very beautiful bird of New Guinea, of the genus Astrapia, having dark velvety plumage with brilliant metallic tints.

Paradise nut (Bot.), the sapucaia nut. See Sapucaia nut. [Local, U. S.]

Paradise whidah bird. (Zo["o]l.) See Whidah.

Paradise

Par"a*dise\, v. t. To affect or exalt with visions of felicity; to entrance; to bewitch. [R.] --Marston.
Language Translation for : paradise
Spanish: paraíso,
German: das Paradies,
Japanese: 楽園

paradise

A place or state of pure happiness. Christians have identified paradise both with the Garden of Eden and with heaven.


paradise 
c.1175, "Garden of Eden," from O.Fr. paradis, from L.L. paradisus, from Gk. paradeisos "park, paradise, Garden of Eden," from an Iranian source, cf. Avestan pairidaeza "enclosure, park" (Mod.Pers. and Arabic firdaus "garden, paradise"), compound of pairi- "around" + diz "to make, form (a wall)." The first element is cognate with Gk. peri- "around, about" (see peri-), the second with Skt. digen "firm, solid," originally "kneaded into a compact mass," Gk. teikhos "wall," L. fingere "form, fashion" (cf. fiction), Goth. deigan "to smear," O.E. dag "dough." The Gk. word, originally used for an orchard or hunting park in Persia, was used in Septuagint to mean "Garden of Eden," and in New Testament translations of Luke xxiii.43 to mean "heaven" (a sense attested in Eng. from c.1205). Meaning "place like or compared to Paradise" is from c.1300.

Paradise
Paradise is a subsystem (a set of packages) developed to implement inter-processes, inter-tasks and inter-machine communication for Ada programs under Unix. This subsystem gives the user full access to files, pipes, sockets (both Unix and Internet) and pseudo-devices.
Paradise has been ported to Sun, DEC, Sony MIPS, Verdex compiler, DEC compiler, Alsys/Systeam compiler.
Version 2.0 of the library. E-mail: .
(1992-09-30)

Paradise

a Persian word (pardes), properly meaning a "pleasure-ground" or "park" or "king's garden." (See EDEN.) It came in course of time to be used as a name for the world of happiness and rest hereafter (Luke 23:43; 2 Cor. 12:4; Rev. 2:7). For "garden" in Gen. 2:8 the LXX. has "paradise."

paradise

see fool's paradise.

paradise

in religion, a place of exceptional happiness and delight. The term paradise is often used as a synonym for the Garden of Eden before the expulsion of Adam and Eve. An earthly paradise is often conceived of as existing in a time when heaven and earth were very close together or actually touching, and when humans and gods had free and happy association. Many religions also include the notion of a fuller life beyond the grave, a land in which there will be an absence of suffering and a complete satisfaction of bodily desires. Accounts of a primordial earthly paradise in the higher religions range from that of a garden of life (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) to that of a golden age of human society at the beginning of each cycle of human existence (Buddhism, Hinduism). A final state of bliss is variously conceived of as a heavenly afterlife (Islam, Christianity), union with the divine (Hinduism), or an eternal condition of peace and changelessness (Buddhism).

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