دل (Persian)

Where does "دل" come from?

The Persian word 'dil' (دل) traces its origins to the ancient Proto-Indo-European root *ḱḗr, linking it to the English 'heart' and Sanskrit 'hṛdaya'. Over millennia, it evolved through Proto-Indo-Iranian and Proto-Iranian stages before stabilizing in Middle Persian, undergoing a distinct phonetic shift. Today, it serves as a multifaceted term in Persian, representing not only the physical organ but also the stomach, the intellect, and the seat of human courage.

Full etymology tree

• دل (dil) (Persian), 'heart'
  • inherited 𐭣𐭩𐭫 (dyl) (Middle Persian)
    • inherited *jā́rd (Proto-Iranian), 'heart'
      • inherited *ȷ́ʰā́rd (Proto-Indo-Iranian), 'heart'
        • inherited *ḱḗr (Proto-Indo-European), 'heart'

Ancestors

• *jā́rd (Proto-Iranian)
• *ȷ́ʰā́rd (Proto-Indo-Iranian)
• *ḱḗr (Proto-Indo-European)

Cognates and doublets

• սիրտ (Armenian)
• 𐬰𐬆𐬭𐬆𐬛 (Avestan)
• heart (English)
• dil (Northern Kurdish)
• زړه (Pashto)
• हृदय (Sanskrit)

Descendants and derived words

• dil (Azerbaijani)
• dil (Azerbaijani)
• دل (Baluchi)
• দিল (Bengali)
• دڵ (Central Kurdish)
• દિલ (Gujarati)
• дил (Kyrgyz)
• دل (Laki)
• दिल (Marathi)
• dil (Northern Kurdish)
• दिल (Old Hindi)
• ਦਿਲੁ (Old Punjabi)

Updated July 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris