From Old Persian 'pairidaēza' (walled enclosure): 'pairi-' (around) + 'daēza' (wall). Originally the walled royal gardens of Persian kings. Xenophon borrowed it into Greek; the Septuagint used it for Eden; Christianity made it heaven. A Persian fence became the Western afterlife.
An ideal or idyllic place or state; heaven; the Garden of Eden.
From Old French 'paradis', from Latin 'paradīsus', from Greek 'parádeisos' (παράδεισος, enclosed park, pleasure garden), from Avestan/Old Persian 'pairidaēza' (walled enclosure), composed of 'pairi-' (around) and 'daēza' (wall, built structure). Originally described the grand walled gardens of Persian kings, particularly the royal hunting parks of the Achaemenid Empire. Xenophon used the Greek word
The PIE root *dʰeyǵʰ- (to knead/form) that gives Persian 'daēza' (wall) also gives English 'dough' (kneaded substance), 'figure' and 'fiction' (Latin fingere, to form/shape), and 'lady' (Old English hlǣfdige, 'loaf-kneader'). Paradise, dough, fiction, and lady all descend from the same root — the act of shaping with your hands.