Parsi

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A term referring to the Zoroastrian community primarily located in India, descended from Persian immigrants who fled to escape religious persecution
2. An ethnic group derived from ancient Persians, known for their unique cultural practices and contributions to Indian society
3. Members of a religious and cultural group practicing Zoroastrianism, recognized for their rich heritage and significant impact on the regions they inhabit

Etymology: The English word "Parsi" is a loan from Gujarati, where "pārsī" was the ordinary name for anyone from Iran. The Gujaratis inherited it from a long tradition of Indian writing, in which "pārasa" and "pārasika" referred to Persians. Those forms trace back through Middle Persian to Old Persian "Pārsa", the name of the land of Pars, the homeland of the Persian people and the heart of their empire. Its earliest Indian attestations, in the Sanskrit Mahabharata, already used the term for Iranians in general and even for Sasanian kings. The meaning then narrowed in a surprising way. The Zoroastrian refugees who reached western India from Iran, traditionally from the 8th to 10th centuries onward, took on the name as their own, so a word once used for an entire nationality came to mark a single religious community of descent from Persia. In colonial times the term was stretched further, applied to the Portuguese and by extension to Europeans generally.

Synonyms: zoroastrian, zoroastrianism follower