Ahriman
name ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The hypostasis of chaos, destruction, and evil.
"[A]midst Ahriman and his hosts who had now established themselves in the Occident, and as heirs to the horns and tails of Pans and fauns, a crowd of native spirits moved; imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks, river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire."
Example
More examples"[A]midst Ahriman and his hosts who had now established themselves in the Occident, and as heirs to the horns and tails of Pans and fauns, a crowd of native spirits moved; imps, giants, trolls, forest-spirits, elves and hobgoblins in and on the earth; nicks, river-sprites in the water, fiends in the air, and salamanders in the fire."
Etymology
Derived from Classical Persian اَهْرِمَن (ahriman) or Iranian Persian اَهْریمَن (ahriman), from Middle Persian 𐭠𐭧𐭫𐭬𐭭𐭩 (ʾḥlmny /ahreman/), from Avestan 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 (aŋra.maⁱniiu), compound of 𐬀𐬢𐬭𐬀 (aŋra, “destruction, destructive”) and 𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 (maⁱniiu, “spirit, mind, essence, emanation etc.”). Definable through the antithetical 𐬀𐬨𐬆𐬱𐬀⸱𐬨𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬌𐬌𐬎 (aməša.maⁱniiu, “bounteous spirit”). Doublet of Angra Mainyu.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.