Persian

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Etymology

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Inherited from Middle Persian [script needed] (ʾpʾhtl /⁠abāxtar⁠/, north), derived from Avestan 𐬀𐬞𐬁𐬑𐬙𐬀𐬭𐬀 (apāxtara, north; direction of the daevas, direction of Ahriman, direction of Hell), from Old Iranian *apāxtara (retrograde, backward-turning), comparative stem based on *apāk-/*apāŋ (backward), from the preposition *apa (behind), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *apatamás, from Proto-Indo-European *h₂epo-tm̥mo-, from *h₂epó (from, away, off).[1]

See also Albanian afër (close, nearby),[2] Gothic 𐌰𐍆𐌰𐍂 (afar, after), Old Persian 𐎠𐎱𐎼 (apara, later, after), Avestan 𐬀𐬞𐬀𐬭𐬀 (apara, more behind, later).

Noun

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Dari باختر
Iranian Persian
Tajik бохтар

باختر (bâxtar)

  1. west
  2. (obsolete) north

Descendants

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  • Urdu: باختر (bāxtar)

Proper noun

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Dari باختر
Iranian Persian
Tajik Бохтар

باختر (bâxtar)

  1. Bokhtar (a city, the provincial capital of Khatlon, Tajikistan)
  2. Bactria (the ancient name of the country between the range of the Hindu Kush and the Amu Darya in West Asia, encompassing parts of northern Afghanistan, eastern Turkmenistan, southern Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and northern Pakistan)

References

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  1. ^ The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Zoroastrianism, p. 249
  2. ^ Orel, Vladimir E. (1998) “باختر”, in Albanian Etymological Dictionary, Leiden, Boston, Köln: Brill, →ISBN, page 1

Urdu

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Etymology

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From Classical Persian باختر (bāxtar).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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باخْتَر (bāxtar? (Hindi spelling बाख़्तर)

  1. west
  2. Khorasan; Central Asia
  3. (dialectal) east
  NODES
see 1