The word paradise is derived from the sanskrit word Paradesha wich literally means Supreme Country. In the Western world it was translitterated in many ways such as the Avestan word of pairidaeza (a walled enclosure), which is a compound of pairi- (around), a cognate of the Greek peri-, and -diz (to create, make) and Armenian word of partez (a garden). Sources as early as Xenophon in his Anabasis report the famed Persian "paradise" garden. The form of the word that is now understood as "heaven or any environment that is ultimately pleasurable" is derived from the Greek paradeisos used in the Septuagint Bible translation to mean the Garden of Eden. In the New Testament, paradise meant a

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In Achaemenid Persia, possibly earlier (in Mesopotamia?), the term was not just applied to 'landscaped' gardens but especially to royal hunting grounds, the earliest form of wildlife reserve, destined for hunting as a sport; in various cultures in contact with nature, paradise is portrayed as eternal hunting ground, not just in relatively primitive cultures (e.g. native American) but also in more advanced, essentially agricultural civilisations, e.g. the Egyptian Reed fields and the Greek Elysian fields.

Place types commonly known by analogy as paradise include:

• The ideal place on earth or utopia,
  
  
  
  which was once embodied by the Garden of Eden.
• Heaven, which in some religions awaits the best, repentent or chosen people.
• An enclosed garden, sometimes called a paradise garden.

Geographical places called Paradise include:

• Paradise, California
• Paradise, Kansas
• Paradise, Louisiana
• Paradise, Michigan
• Paradise, Montana
• Paradise, Nevada
• Paradise, Pennsylvania
• Paradise, Texas
• Paradise, Utah
• Paradise Township, Pennsylvania
• Paradise, South Australia
• Paradise, Tasmania, Australia
• Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
• Paradise, Newcastle upon Tyne, England
• Paradise, Otago, New Zealand

Other things named or titled Paradise:

• the third book of Dante's Divine Comedy
• Paradise Park, A tourist centre and more, Newhaven, East Sussex, UK
• Paradise Systems, a graphics cards manufacturer
• Paradise (TV series), a a 1988-1990 television show
• Paradise (album), a 2005 album by Paint It Black
• Paradise (film), a 1982 movie
• 'novel, a novel by Toni Morrison
• "Paradise", a song by Nat King Cole
• Paradise, a nickname for the home stadium of Glasgow Celtic FC, Celtic Park
• Paradise (band), a Norwegian group known for the single Sheila (1983)
• Paradise (DS9 episode), an episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

See also

• Christian anarchism
• Elysium
• Enlightenment
• Heaven
• Nirvana
• Jannah
• The Big Rock Candy Mountain

Paradies Paradizo Paradis paradiso Paradijs Paradis (olika betydelser)