<Persianzandawastā (now also zandastā) <zand + awastā (see note), after Middle Persianawastā-wa-zand, lit. ‘Avesta and interpretation’ <awastā, the name of the most ancient Zoroastrian texts (see…
<Persianzandawastā (now also zandastā) <zand + awastā (see note), after Middle Persianawastā-wa-zand, lit. ‘Avesta and interpretation’ <awastā, the name of the most ancient Zoroastrian texts (see note) + wa and + zand interpretation, commentary, exegesis, also specifically the body of commentary on the Avesta (cognate with Avestanzainti, ultimately <zan to recognize, to know: see canv.1).
Notes
Middle Persian (Pahlavi) abestāg (later awastā; Persianawastā) is of uncertain origin, but perhaps (with an underlying sense ‘injunction, command, testament’) < the Iranian base of Old Persianapi-, Avestanaipi- (see epi-prefix) + a derivative of the Iranian base of Old Persianstā-, Avestanstā- to stand, to place (see standn.1); compare Sogdianʾpštʾwn injunction, command, ʾpšty- to enjoin, command. Compare later Avestan.
Compare French †Zundeuastavv (1657 or earlier), Zend Avesta (1762 or earlier).
Meaning & use
1630–
The sacred writings of Zoroastrianism; the ancient text of the Avesta (Avestan.), written in the Avestan language, together with the accompanying exegesis, commentary, or translation, written in Book Pahlavi (cf. Zendn. A.1b). Also: the Avesta by itself.
Although still attested, the application of Zend-Avesta to the ancient Avestan texts independent of the accompanying exegisis is generally considered erroneous by specialists; cf. Zendn. A.1a.
1630
A booke writ in the Persian Character, containing their Scripture, and in their owne language, called their Zvndavastaw.
H. Lord, Display of Two Forraigne Sects Proeme
1695
Learn the Zundavastaw by rote.
W. Turner, Hist. All Relig. Worldii. 633
1762
Kabul, says the Zendavesta, was born on the rushy banks of the river Mawra.
O. Goldsmith, Citizen of Worldvol. I. 53
1799
The zendavesta is marked with the seal of philosophy; its precepts are pure.
Critical Reviewvol. 26 501
1843
The Pársí religion: as contained in the Zand-Avasta.
J. Wilson(title)
1854
When the Vaticans shall be filled with Vedas and Zendavestas and Bibles.
H. D. Thoreau, Walden 113
1921
The Zend-Avesta..is a Talmud rather than a Bible.
Jewish Quarterly Reviewvol. 12 46
1962
The Gathas contain the oldest parts of the Zend Avesta and concern the establishment of the ethics of the religion.
American Journal of Sociologyvol. 68 13/2
2012
A Christian had to swear by the New Testament, a Jew by the Hebrew Testament and a Parsi by the open Zend-Avesta.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛtl/ but /ˈpɛtl̩i/.
Vowels
iːfleece
ihappy
ɪkit
ɛdress
atrap, bath
ɑːstart, palm, bath
ɒlot
ɔːthought, force
ʌstrut
ʊfoot
uːgoose
əletter
əːnurse
ɪənear
ɛːsquare
ʊəcure
eɪface
ʌɪpride
aʊmouth
əʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ãgratin
ɒ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Some consonants can take the function of the vowel in unstressed syllables. Where necessary, a syllabic marker diacritic is used, hence /ˈpɛd(ə)l/ but /ˈpɛdl̩i/.
Vowels
ifleece, happy
ɪkit
ɛdress
ætrap, bath
ɑlot, palm, cloth, thought
ɑrstart
ɔcloth, thought
ɔrnorth, force
ʊfoot
ugoose
əstrut, comma
ərnurse, letter
ɪ(ə)rnear
ɛ(ə)rsquare
ʊ(ə)rcure
eɪface
aɪpride
aʊmouth
oʊgoat
ɔɪvoice
ɑ̃gratin
æ̃salon
ᵻ(/ɪ/-/ə/)
ᵿ(/ʊ/-/ə/)
Other symbols
The symbol ˈ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with primary stress.
The symbol ˌ at the beginning of a syllable indicates that that syllable is pronounced with secondary stress.
Round brackets ( ) in a transcription indicate that the symbol within the brackets is optional.
Simple text respell breaks words into syllables, separated by a hyphen. The syllable which carries the primary stress is written in capital letters. This key covers both British and U.S. English Simple Text Respell.
Consonants
b, d, f, h, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, t, v, w and z have their standard English values
Zend-Avesta typically occurs about 0.03 times per million words in modern written English.
Zend-Avesta is in frequency band 3, which contains words occurring between 0.01 and 0.1 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands
Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.
Frequency of Zend-Avesta, n., 1790–2010
* Occurrences per million words in written English
Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.
The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.
For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.
Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.