خراسان

Persian

Alternative forms

• خوراسان (xwarâsân)

Etymology

From earlier خوراسان (xwarâsân), from Middle Persian hwlʾsʾn' (xwarāsān, literally “sunrise; east”). Equivalent to خور (xwar, “sun”) + آسان (āsān, “coming”). آسان (āsān) is the Parthian conjugation of a verb meaning “to come, to rise”. For the first part, compare خورشید (xoršid), for the second part compare Baluchi آسگ (ásag, “to rise”).

Proper noun

Dari	خراسان
Iranian Persian
Tajik	Хуросон

خراسان • (xorâsân)

1. Khorasan, Greater Khorasan
   • 11th century, Fakhruddin As'ad Gurgani, Vis and Rāmin

     زبان پهلوی هر کو شناسد
     خراسان یعنی آنجا کو خور آسد
     خراسان را بود معنی خور آیان
     کجا از وی خور آید سوی ایران

     zabān-i Pahlawī har kū šināsad
     "Xorāsān" ya'nī "ānjā kū xwar āsad"
     "Xorāsān" rā buwad ma'nī "xwar āyān ...
     ... kujā az way xwar āyad sōy-i Ērān

     Anyone who knows the Parthian language
     [knows that] "Khurasan" means "[the place] from which the sun comes"
     “Khorasan” means the coming sun ...
     ... from where the sun comes toward Persia

2. Khorasan (a region in Iran now divided in three provinces)

Derived terms

• خراسانی (xorâsâni)

Descendants

• → Greek: κουρασάνι (kourasáni, “Khorasani style lime mortar”)

References

• Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar (1931–) “خوراسان”, in Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute, editors, Dehkhoda Dictionary (in Persian), Tehran: University of Tehran Press
• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “xwarāsān”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 95
• Horn, Paul (1893) Grundriss der neupersischen Etymologie (in German), Strasbourg: K.J. Trübner, page 7