FromIranian Persianایران(irân), fromClassical Persianایران(ērān), fromMiddle Persian𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭(ʾērān,“of the Aryans”). See𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭(ʾērān) for word formation, further etymology and cognates. The name of the political entity is a 3rd-century development that derives from the indigenous ethnolinguistic name of the Iranian peoples,[1] i.e. the great variety of Iranian tribes that spoke an Iranian language.
ca.1675, Jean Chardin (Sir John Chardin),Travels in Persia, 1673-1677, fasc. reprint 1988, Dover, page 126:
"ThePersians, in naming their country, make use of one word, which they indifferently pronounceIroun, andIran."
1828,Thomas Keightley,The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page25:
Light was happiness; and the people ofIran, the land of light, were the favourites of heaven; while those ofTuran, the gloomy region beyond the mountains to the north, were its enemies.
2005, Massoume Price, editor,Iran's Diverse Peoples, ABC-Clio, page xiii:
"Iran is a vast and ancient country in a strategic location in the Middle East. It borders Russia, Iraq, Turkey, Pakistan, the Gulf of Oman, and the Persian Gulf."
2019 June 26, Frederik Pleitgen and Eliza Mackintosh, “US is ‘not in a position to obliterate Iran,’ Iranian foreign minister says”, inCNN[1]:
The US President himself accused Iran of being behind the provocation, threatening airstrikes onIran last week – but calling them off just minutes before they were to begin.
"Kavi means a king, but it is particularly used of the kings belonging to the second and most celebrated of the two mythical dynasties ofIran."
"One certain fact is the occurrence of geographical names [Bactria, Sogdiana, etc] in Vendidad I, which are obviously intended to describe the earliest homes of the Iranian races whose lore was the Avesta."
1898, A. V. W. Jackson,Zoroaster: The Prophet of AncientIran, Macmillan, page10:
"Zoroaster ofIran. — Zoroaster, it is believed, sprang up in the seventh century before the Christian era, somewhere in the land between the Indus and the Tigris."
1909, “Iran”, in John Huston Finley, editor,Nelson's Perpetual Loose-leaf Encyclopaedia, volume 6, page479:
"Iran. in early times, the name applied to the great Asiatic plateau which comprised the entire region from the Caucasus, the Caspian Sea, and Russian Turkestan on the north to the Tigris, the Persian Gulf, and the Arabian Sea on the west and south, and extending to the Indus on the east, likewise comprising the modern Afghanistan and the territory to the north of it as far as the Jaxartes River."
1985, J. M. Cooke, “The Rise of the Achaemenids”, inCambridge Historiy of Iran, volume 2, page290:
"[W]e may surmise that there was a strong sense of Iranian unity lending solidarity to the eastern half of the empire. It is only in the generations after Alexander, in Eudemus and in Eratosthenes (ap. Strabo), that we find mention of the concept of a greater nation ofIran (Arianē) stretching from the Zagros to the Indus; but the sense of unity must have been there, for Herodotus tells us that the Medes were formerly called Arioi, and Darius I (followed by Xerxes) in his inscriptions proclaims himself an Iranian (Ariya) by race - he speaks of himself in ascending order as an Achaemenid, a Persian and an Iranian (Naqsh-i Rustam)."
1990, Hubert Darke, “Cambridge History of Iran”, inEncyclopedia Iranica, volume 4, page724:
"[The] Cambridge History ofIran [is] a survey of the history and historical geography of the land which is present-day Iran, as well as other territories inhabited by peoples of Iranian descent."
Ultimately fromPersianایران(irân), fromMiddle Persian𐭠𐭩𐭥𐭠𐭭(ʾyʿʾn).Thisetymology is incomplete. You can help Wiktionary by elaborating on the origins of this term.
The word is sometimes used without a definite article as in English:Iran, in Iran. In this case, the genitive is alwaysIrans, for exampleIrans Hauptstadt – "Iran's capital".
More commonly, however, the definite article is used with the name:der Iran, im Iran. In this case, the genitive usually isdes Iran, althoughdes Irans is also correct:die Hauptstadt des Iran(s) – "the capital of Iran".
