چالش

Persian

Etymology

From (čâl, seemingly a variant of (čal), present stem of (čalidan, “to walk, to go”)) +‎ (-eš). The modern sense of "challenge" is not found in Steingass, and the word in general seems quite rare in classical sources. The modern meaning may be a phono-semantic matching of English challenge or some other European language. Compare (taneš, “tension”)

Pronunciation

(Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃɑː.ˈliʃ]

(Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰɑː.lɪ́ʃ]
- (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰɑː.lɪ́ʃ]
- (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰɔː.líʃ]

(Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰɒː.léʃ]

(Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [t͡ʃʰɔ.líʃ]

Readings
Classical reading^?	čāliš
Dari reading^?	čāliš
Iranian reading^?	čâleš
Tajik reading^?	čoliš

Noun

چالش • (čâleš)

challenge, struggle
(archaic) exertion in battle; martial conduct; (loosely) battle
- 1188, Niẓāmī Ganjavī, اسکندرنامه [Iskandarnāma]‎^[1]:
  بفرمود شه تا دلیران روم
  نمایند چالش در آن مرز و بوم
  bifarmūd šah tā dalērān-i rūm
  nimāyand čāliš dar ān marz u būm
  The king ordered that the brave men of Rome
  Should display their martial gait in that borderland and country.
  (Classical Persian transliteration)
(obsolete, original sense) proud and sauntering gait

Derived terms

چالشی (čâleši, “challenging”)

References

Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892) “چالش”, in A Comprehensive Persian–English dictionary, London: Routledge & K. Paul
Nourai, Ali (2011) An Etymological Dictionary of Persian, English and other Indo-European Languages, page 260