# Origin of paisley column just wrong

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-paisley-column-just-wrong/668928>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [September 15, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-paisley-column-just-wrong/668928 "2013-09-15T19:55:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![shava23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8e8cbc/32.png) [@shava23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shava23)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2013, 7:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-paisley-column-just-wrong/668928/1 "2013-09-15T19:55:18Z")

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Ancient history as Straight Dope columns go, I know, but in the interest of stuff that’s wrong on the net just eye-bleedingly wrong not standing without mention, I had to say something.

[http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/633/whats-the-origin-of-the-paisley-design](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/633/whats-the-origin-of-the-paisley-design)

Cashews are a new world fruit tree whose kernal is used as a nut. Paisley designs predate that by a whole lot, depending on what you want to call a paisley, ranging from Asia Minor to South Asia and even Southeast Asia.

[Boteh (Botteh, Paisley). Aryan Silk & Trade](http://www.heritageinstitute.com/zoroastrianism/trade/paisley.htm)

for example.

Or even, clicky-clicky the various footnotes cited at:

> **[Paisley (design) | Origins](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paisley_(design)#Origins)**
>
> Some design scholars\[who?\] believe the buta is the convergence of a stylized floral spray and a cypress tree: a Zoroastrian symbol of life and eternity. The "bent" cedar is also a sign of strength and resistance but modesty. The floral motif was originated in the Sassanid dynasty and later in the Safavid dynasty of Persia (1501–1736), and was a major textile pattern in Iran during the Qajar and Pahlavi dynasties. In these periods, the pattern was used to decorate royal regalia, crowns, and cou

Looks like Cecil single sourced this from a jerk who thinks everything is sexual (which it might be) and about nuts (which it might be) and likes cashews. Which are not the best nuts (damned poisonous to a great many people), or from that part of the world at that time.

Sorry…

Paisley as we know it, mostly, is derived from the India trade fabrics, where it was known as a mango design in southern parts of South Asia.

I rather like the notion from the Tigris/Euphrates area that it originated from cut figs, though. That’s just a personal bias. It looks much more like a cut fig than a cut mango to me.

But, um. No, no cashews. Sorry.

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**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2013, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/origin-of-paisley-column-just-wrong/668928/2 "2013-09-16T11:38:07Z")

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I’ve brought this to Cecil’s attention; I don’t know what (if anything) he’ll do with it. Thanks for the comments and welcome to the Straight Dope Message Boards!