Analysis of the word “Sadeh”

Farid Shoolizadeh

The word “Sadeh” is composed of two parts: ‘sad’ and ‘eh’.  In Sanskrit this word is ‘sata’.  In Avesta, the first two sounds of this word means 2X50 (100).  The second component ‘eh’ is a suffix that is used in plenty in the ancient Persian language.  Using this suffix ‘eh’ or ‘ak’ or in Pahlavi ‘aka’ is to give a word another specific but related meaning.  This specifying is not only for the word ‘sadeh’ but for many other words, like ‘dah’ meaning 10 and ‘daheh’ meaning a decade.  From many such examples in the Persian language it is clear that using the suffix ‘eh’ is also to specify a certain number, like ‘panj’ meaning 5 and ‘panjeh’ meaning the 5 last days of the year.  Therefore, it is not difficult to analyze that the word ‘sadeh’ is related to the number 100 (sad or sat), but specific of a calculation, i.e., the 100th day of winter in ancient Iran.  In

ancient Iran the year was divided into two parts:  the long summer (hama) having 7 months and the winter (zayana) having 5 months.  Winter would start from the month of Aban (23 October) and 100 days after winter started, on Mehrizad day of the month of Bahman Sadeh was celebrated.  Sadeh refers to this 100th day of the winter in ancient Iran.