مجوس

From Aramaic 𐡌𐡂𐡅𐡔 (mgwš), from Old Persian 𐎶𐎦𐏁 (maguš).[1]

Was used by the Iraqi Baathist regime to refer to Iran during the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s, and later developed into a broadly anti-Shi'a slur.

مَجُوس • (majūs) m pl (collective, singulative مَجُوسِيّ m (majūsiyy))

1. (collective) Magians, (collective, historical) Zoroastrians
   • 609–632 CE, Qur'an, 22:17:
     (translated by Yusuf Ali)

     إِنَّ ٱلَّذِينَ آمَنُوا وَٱلَّذِينَ هَادُوا وَٱلصَّابِئِينَ وَٱلنَّصَارَىٰ وَٱلْمَجُوسَ وَٱلَّذِينَ أَشْرَكُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَفْصِلُ بَيْنَهُمْ يَوْمَ ٱلْقِيَامَةِ إِنَّ اللَّهَ عَلَى كُلِّ شَيْءٍ شَهِيدٌ

     ʔinna llaḏīna ʔāmanū wallaḏīna hādū waṣ-ṣābiʔīna wan-naṣārā wal-majūsa wallaḏīna ʔašrakū ʔinna l-laha yafṣilu baynahum yawma l-qiyāmati ʔinna l-laha ʕalā kulli šayʔin šahīdun

     Those who believe (in the Qur'an), those who follow the Jewish (scriptures), and the Sabians, Christians, Magians, and Polytheists,- Allah will judge between them on the Day of Judgment: for Allah is witness of all things.

2. (ethnic slur) Iranians.
3. (religious slur) Shi'as.

• → Persian: مَجوس (majus)

Reborrowed from Arabic مَجُوس (majūs, “Magian”) ultimately from Old Persian 𐎶𐎦𐏁 (maguš, “Mazdean Priest”)

مجوس • (majus) (plural مجوسان (majusân))

1. Magus, Magian
   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 3922:

     هر که را آتش پناه و پشت شد
     هم مجوسی گشت و هم زردشت شد

     har ki rā ātiš panāh u pušt šud
     ham majūs-ē gašt u ham zardušt šud

     Any one to whom fire is a refuge and support
     becomes both a Magian and a Zoroaster.

• Hayyim, Sulayman (1934) “مجوس”, in New Persian–English dictionary, Teheran: Librairie-imprimerie Béroukhim