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Persian Much of English is made up of words from other languages, and some are from Persian, the earlier form of the language now known as Farsi. Persia once had a vast empire in Southwest Asia, and Persian left a legacy to many of the languages of the region. Though relatively few purely Persian words have moved directly into English, numerous words set out from Persian and found their way by a more circuitous route. A typical much-traveled example would be Persian lāžward "lapis lazuli," which arrived in English in the 13th century as azure, by way of Arabic al-lāzaward "the lapis lazuli," medieval Latin azzurum, and finally Old French azur. Even earlier was the name of the game of chess, known from the 12th century and a shortening of Old French esches, plural of eschec "check in chess"; this is the word from which the English chess term check (14th century) immediately derives, though the French goes back to Persian šāh "king," itself imported as shah in the mid-16th century; checkmate followed check in the 15th century, from Old French eschec mat, from Persian šāh māt "the king is dead."
Travel and trade brought English speakers more directly into contact with Persian, and this is reflected by early migrants, for example, khan "inn" (14th century), and caravanserai (late 16th), from Persian kārwānsarāī, formed from kārwān "group of desert travelers" and sarāī "inn" (caravan itself also arrived from Persian in the late 16th century, by way of French). Luxury materials such as taffeta (14th century, via medieval Latin or Old French taffetas from Persian tāftah from tāftan "to shine"), seersucker (early 18th, via Hindi from Persian šīr o šakar "milk and sugar"), and pashmina (late 19th, from Persian pašmīn "woolen," from pašm "wool") continued to come from or through Persian.
A great proportion of words of Persian origin, however, migrated through the languages of northern South Asia such as Hindi and, especially, its close relative Urdu, the official language of Pakistan and of Bangladesh, which has many loanwords from Persian. Urdu and Persian gave, for example, familiar items such as pajamas (early 19th century, from pāy-jāmah "leg garment"), the shawl (early 17th, from šāl), and khaki (mid-19th, from Urdu ḵakī "dust-colored" from Persian ḵāk "dust"). Through Persian and Urdu have migrated not only words relating to Islamic culture and religion such as burqa, chador, mullah, purdah, and zakat ("tax that goes to charity"), but also the name for those of another great faith, Hindu (mid-17th century, via Urdu from Persian Hindū from Hind "India"). South Asian terms of the military and of public administration include numerous words in -dar, from Persian -dār "holder," for example, havildar, jamadar, sardar, subadar, tahsildar, and zamindar.
During the 20th century, migration of people from South Asia has brought many more English speakers into contact with its cultures, and nowhere more effectively than in its food. Biryani (via Hindi from Persian biriyān "fried, grilled"), kofta (from Urdu and Persian koftah "pounded meat"), nan (from Persian and Urdu nān), and the tandoori (from Persian and Urdu, from Urdu tandūr, Persian tanūr "clay oven") are familiar pleasures of many non-Asian lives. See also Turkish.
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