Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. In Persian mythology, a beautiful and benevolent supernatural being or fairy, earlier regarded as malevolent.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. In Pers. myth., an elf or fairy, male or female, represented as a descendant of fallen angels, excluded from Paradise till their penance is accomplished.
- In heraldry, reduced in size: generally equivalent to couped. Cuzzens, Handbook of Heraldry.
- A prefix in words of Greek origin or formation, meaning ‘around,’ ‘about,’ ‘near,’ equivalent to circum- of Latin origin, as in periphery equivalent to circumference, etc. It is much used in the formation of new scientific compounds, but not, like
circum- , as an English formative.
Wiktionary
- n. a sprite or supernatural being in Persian mythology.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Persian Myth.) An imaginary being, male or female, like an elf or fairy, represented as a descendant of fallen angels, excluded from paradise till penance is accomplished.
WordNet 3.0
- n. (Persian folklore) a supernatural being descended from fallen angels and excluded from paradise until penance is done
- n. a beautiful and graceful girl
Etymologies
- Persian پری (pari), from Middle Persian, from Avestan (parikā) "witch". (Wiktionary)
- Persian parī, from Pahlavi parīk, malevolent sprite, from Avestan pairikā, a kind of female demon. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I don’t think they would qualify as rural now doesn’t Hansen use the term peri-urban?”
A First Look at the USHCN Quality Classification « Climate Audit
“Lips. 1842, p. 25n) says that” Unus Cod. qui ex cœnobiis montis Athos advectus est “gives the title peri tēs Sōsannēs.”
“Likewise, in peri-Y2K modernity, the two metaphors of Ubiquitous Computing and Ambient Computing both provide frameworks for developing technology, agency, and politics - one an Apollonian vision of discourse mediated through distributed displays and UI; the other an emergent ecology of agency distributed among people and machines.”
Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Ambient Intelligence and Smart Surroundings in the Netherlands
“[Footnote 17: The word peri, in the Persian language, signifies that beautiful race of creatures which constitutes the link between angels and men.]”
“Florinus had previously held that God was the author of evil, which sentiment Irenaeus opposed in a treatise, now lost, called peri monarchias.”
ANF01. The Apostolic Fathers with Justin Martyr and Irenaeus
“Testament; for twice, expressing the sin-offering by this word, he uses that phrase peri harmatias, Rom. viii.”
“He wrote a work which is variously entitled peri tou ontos, peri physeos, etc., and of which only a few fragments have come down to us.”
“Its addictive flame-broiled wings are seasoned with the fiery African bird's eye chili, known as peri peri or piri piri.”
“The time leading up to this stage is known as the peri-menopause.”
“The condition is called peri-partum cardiomyopathy.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘peri’.
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Sue's favorite words
panache, flair, pantaloons, periwinkle, pumpernickel, persnickety, cachet, coquette, élan, iris, ambrosia, keen and 99 more...
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ancient signs
ouroboros, calypso, la sirene, Medusa, chthonic, aureole, colophon, succubus, peri, homunculus, zephyr, numinous and 56 more...
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the lascivious
orgiastic, nymph, breathless, writhe, calypso, Medusa, virago, sapphic, catamite, bisou, buss, succubus and 48 more...
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Wunderkammer
A not-so-secret cache of wonderfilled words; may be mythical, magical, philosophical, oddball or just plain cool
thaumazein, anacampserote, cledonism, mirabile dictu, limen, sough, amaranthine, anamorphosis, lyribliring, lubberland, luciferous, madstone and 31 more...
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learning
A list of words whose meanings I am learning, either because a) I don't know the meaning b) I know the meaning, but could stand to better appreciate certain inflections or secondary meanings or c) ...
louche, educe, loam, cob, sclerotic, palliate, axial, syndicalist, ecumenical, sally, fatuous, parvenu and 1381 more...
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looked up
Words I've come across while reading and looked up in the dictionary.
deesis, pendentive, revetment, aedicule, stemma, patera, ephod, entrepot, corbel, exedra, volute, archivolt and 1408 more...
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Ulysses
This is a list of the more difficult English words found in James Joyce's Ulysses. It will continually be updated as I read along. The list is in reverse chronological order, meaning that the last ...
equine, untonsured, corpuscle, prelate, parapet, dactyl, jejune, lancet, jalap, barbican, valise, dewsilky and 377 more...
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MY WORDS
egoist, entomologists, egotist, altruist, introvert, extrovert, ambivert, misanthrope, misogynist, misogamist, ascetic, Altruism and 193 more...
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Words featured in Mrs. Byrne's Dictio...
Selections from Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words by Josefa Heifetz Byrne (University Books, 1974). Definitions in the comments when not available elsewhere.
apanthropy, anoetic, aristology, ayne, bibliopole, bibliotaph, calecannon, caoine, catlap, chirospasm, clamjamfry, coadunate and 174 more...
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Women
Words about us
virago, maenad, peri, odalisque, succubus, coquette, demimonde, nyotaimori, epicene, mons veneris, fricatrice, parturition and 14 more...
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Supernatural
bogeyman, ghost, peri, brownie, gnome, pixie, changeling, gorgon, satyr, djinn, fetch, genie and 12 more...
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Middle Eastern mythical creatures and...
bakhtak, bahamut, al, ahriman, peri, paristan, huma, homa, hadhayosh, div, akvan, aesma daeva and 17 more...
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Sacred & Superstitious Philosophical ...
Religious, philosophical, supernatural terms and words.
san graal, occult, sangraal, deicide, deipotent, demonarchy, demonosopher, deodate, peri, rewilding, tzitzimime, metapsychic and 31 more...
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jane eyre pretties
a gloss to accompany my reading
vapory, wormwood, woodbine, testatrix, sylvan, sylph, surfeit, sunder, soporific, animadversion, convolvulus, graven and 15 more...
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persian words in english
words originally derived from persian that have made it to english sometimes with several stops in intermediate languages
balcony, algorithm, arsenic, aubergine, azure, baghdad, beige, bombast, borax, bronze, caftan, calabash and 79 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for peri.
sionnach Snacking on a diet of fromunda cheese and assmarmite, no doubt.
Must not link to santorum on this page.
Oops! too late.
*grosses even own self out at the thought* Sep 12, 2009
bilby So the perineum is where fallen angels hang out? Dingleberries in excelsis deo ... stick that up yer bum! Sep 12, 2009
madmouth how interesting--a technical term for 'fallen angel' Sep 12, 2009
fbharjo Persian پري (peri) or fairy, genius, from Middle Persian parik. Persian folklore: a male or female supernatural being like an elf or fairy but formed of fire, descended from fallen angels and excluded from paradise until penance is accomplished, and originally regarded as evil but later as benevolent and beautiful. Also a beautiful and graceful girl or woman Aug 31, 2009