c. 1831.—"Bengal is divided in 24 Pergunnahs, each with its judge and magistrate, registrar, &c."—Sir R. Phillips, Million of Facts, stereot. ed. 1843, 927.
PERI, s. This Persian word for a class of imaginary sprites, rendered familiar in the verses of Moore and Southey, has no blood-relationship with the English Fairy, notwithstanding the exact compliance with Grimm's Law in the change of initial consonant. The Persian word is parī, from par, 'a feather, or wing'; therefore 'the winged one'; [so F. Johnson, Pers. Dict.; but the derivation is very doubtful;] whilst the genealogy of fairy is apparently Ital. fata, French fée, whence féerie ('fay-dom') and thence fairy.
[c. 1500?—"I am the only daughter of a Jinn chief of noblest strain and my name is Peri-Banu."—Arab. Nights, Burton, x. 264.]
1800.—
"From cluster'd henna, and from orange groves,
That with such perfumes fill the breeze
As Peris to their Sister bear,
When from the summit of some lofty tree
She hangs encaged, the captive of the Dives."
Thalaba, xi. 24.