• The Garden of Eden.
• Heaven.
• Any place of ideal peace, beauty, and happiness, often exaggerated. As in Paradise Bar and Grill.
• A state of delight or ecstasy.

First used in English about 1000 CE in a translation of the gospel passage (used in sense #2) quoted below, Luke 23.43.

• From Middle English paradis
• from Old French paradis, parais
• from Late Latin paradisus, -i, m. "a park"  in paradiso, hoc est in viridario ["in paradise, that is, in a pleasure-garden"], Augustine
• from Greek para/deisoj [paradeisos], "garden, enclosed park, pleasure-garden," a Persian word first used in Greek by Xenophon in reference to the parks of the Persian kings and nobles:
  • para/deisoj me/gaj a)gri/wn qhri/wn plh/rhj
    • "a large park full of wild beasts"
  • para/deisoj dasu\j pantoi/wn de/ndrwn
    • "a park thickly wooded with all kinds of trees" Xenophon, Anabasis
  • in LXX (the Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible) paradeisos refers to the garden of Eden.
  • in the Gospel (Luke 23.43.) it refers to the abode of the blessed
    • sh/meron met" e)mou= e)/s$ e)n t%= paradei/s%.
    • Hodie mecum eris in paradiso.
    • Today you will be with me in paradise.

From Avestan pairi-da¶za-, enclosure, park : pairi-, around; + da¶za-, wall.

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