PERSIAN

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does Persian mean? 

• PERSIAN (noun)
  The noun PERSIAN has 2 senses:

1. a native or inhabitant of Iran

2. the language of Persia (Iran) in any of its ancient forms

  Familiarity information: PERSIAN used as a noun is rare.

• PERSIAN (adjective)
  The adjective PERSIAN has 1 sense:

1. of or relating to Iran or its people or language or culture

  Familiarity information: PERSIAN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• PERSIAN (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A native or inhabitant of Iran

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

Irani; Iranian; Persian

Context example:

the majority of Irani are Persian Shiite Muslims

Hypernyms ("Persian" is a kind of...):

Asian; Asiatic (a native or inhabitant of Asia)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "Persian"):

Farsi (a person of Iranian descent)

Instance hyponyms:

Artaxerxes; Artaxerxes I (king of Persia who sanctioned the practice of Judaism in Jerusalem (?-424 BC))

Artaxerxes; Artaxerxes II (king of Persia who subdued numerous revolutions and made peace with Sparta (?-359 BC))

Holonyms ("Persian" is a member of...):

Iran; Islamic Republic of Iran; Persia (a theocratic Islamic republic in the Middle East in western Asia; Iran was the core of the ancient empire that was known as Persia until 1935; rich in oil)

Derivation:

Persian (of or relating to Iran or its people or language or culture)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The language of Persia (Iran) in any of its ancient forms

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

Farsi; Persian

Hypernyms ("Persian" is a kind of...):

Iranian; Iranian language (the modern Persian language spoken in Iran)

Domain member category:

Noruz; Nowrooz; Nowruz ((Persian) the new year holiday in Iran and Azerbaijan and Afghanistan and Pakistan and parts of India and among the Kurds; comes at the vernal equinox)

Derivation:

Persian (of or relating to Iran or its people or language or culture)

• PERSIAN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Of or relating to Iran or its people or language or culture

Classified under:

Relational adjectives (pertainyms)

Synonyms:

Iranian; Persian

Context example:

Iranian security police

Derivation:

Persia (a theocratic Islamic republic in the Middle East in western Asia; Iran was the core of the ancient empire that was known as Persia until 1935; rich in oil)

Persian (the language of Persia (Iran) in any of its ancient forms)

Persian (a native or inhabitant of Iran)

 Context examples 

“I will be at your service in an instant, Watson. You will find tobacco in the Persian slipper.”

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The diagrams, the violin-case, and the pipe-rack—even the Persian slipper which contained the tobacco—all met my eyes as I glanced round me.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They were after the fashion of the kingdom, partly resembling the Persian, and partly the Chinese, and are a very grave and decent habit.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

The Persian, Arabic, and Sanskrit languages engaged his attention, and I was easily induced to enter on the same studies.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Sometimes we saw him passing in lonely majesty to his inner sanctum, with his eyes staring vaguely and his mind hovering over the Balkans or the Persian Gulf.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

An archipelago in the Persian Gulf, on the east coast of Saudi Arabia.

(Bahrain, NCI Thesaurus)

A country in the Middle East, bordering the Arabian Sea, Gulf of Oman, and Persian Gulf, between Yemen and the United Arab Emirates.

(Oman, NCI Thesaurus/CDISC)

You seem to doubt me; I don't doubt myself: I know what my aim is, what my motives are; and at this moment I pass a law, unalterable as that of the Medes and Persians, that both are right.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

If I tell her she will not believe me. You may remember the old Persian saying, ‘There is danger for him who taketh the tiger cub, and danger also for whoso snatches a delusion from a woman.’ There is as much sense in Hafiz as in Horace, and as much knowledge of the world.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I was interested as to which quatrain he would like best, and was not surprised when he hit upon the one born of an instant’s irritability, and quite at variance with the Persian’s complacent philosophy and genial code of life:

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)