Arsacid

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A member of the royal line that ruled the Parthian Empire of ancient Iran from about 247 BC to AD 224
2. One of the kings descended from Arsaces, founder of the Parthian dynasty that governed ancient Persia for centuries
3. Relating to or belonging to the Arsacid dynasty, the Iranian rulers who held power in Parthia for nearly five centuries

Etymology: The name of the Arsacid dynasty of Parthia (roughly 247 BCE to 224 CE) traces back to a single founder, Arsaces, who took power in the region of Parthia around the middle of the third century BCE. The Greeks rendered his name as "Arsakes," and the family's name came from it by way of the Greek suffix "-ides," which marks descent, as in "Pelides" for a son of Peleus. The Romans then borrowed the Greek form as "Arsacidae," and English took the word from Latin in its singular and adjective senses. The founder's name itself has an older Persian source. The Greek "Arsakes" reflects an Old Persian form, "aršaka," so the dynasty's name was a patronymic-style label built on a Persian personal name rather than a title. English speakers encountering the word today are therefore meeting a Greek-shaped echo of a royal Iranian name, passed along through Latin scholarship.