Brad DeLong informs us that:
“Paradise” is derived from the Old Persian word for the wall around an enclosed, irrigated garden. Xenophon mistook the word for the enclosing wall for the word for the garden-park itself, and here we are.
I don’t see that explicitly in the OED; but it’s too delightful. Oh, and I agree that the New York Times better tear down their garden wall if they want to remain the paper of record.
According to the Real Academia de la Lengua de España: ParaÃso (Del lat. paradÄ«sus, este del gr. παÏάδεισος, y este del avéstico pairidaÄ“za, cercado circular, aplicado a los jardines reales).
i.e. Paradise: from latin paradisus, this coming from greek παÏάδεισος (parodeisos) and this one from Persian pairidaeza, circular wall, which applied to Royal gardens.
Other nice link explaining it:
http://www.canuck.com/Esalon/Pattern2.html
Fascinating thinkings open just from tracking the petaphore, similar to the ones I got when I realized that the concept of identity and the one of limit are in such a deep relation.