Zend

• Zand

Via Zoroastrian Middle Persian znd (zand, “understanding, interpretation”), from Avestan 𐬰𐬀𐬌𐬥𐬙𐬌‎ (zainti, “understanding”), from Avestan verbal root 𐬰𐬀𐬥-‎ (zan-, “to know, to understand”), from Proto-Indo-European *ǵneh₃-.

Zend

1. Exegetical glosses, paraphrases, commentaries and translations of the Avesta's texts.
   • 1984, Mary Boyce, Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, Manchester UP, page 3:

     Zand or 'Interpretation' is a term for the exegesis of Avestan texts through glosses, commentaries and translations.

2. (obsolete, erroneous, in the 18th and 19th centuries) The Avestan language.
   • 1878, Martin Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsis. Trübner, page 115:

     As to grammatical forms, the Gâtha dialect shows not a few deviations from the current Zend language.

   • 1819, William Erskine, "On the Sacred Books and Religion of the Parsis", Trans. of the Lit. Soc. of Bombay II, 1820, page 312:

     [The Avesta] is the only work known to be written in the Zend language.

   • 1867, William Dwight Whitney, Language and the Study of Language, Trübner, page 222:

     The dialect in which these writings are composed goes usually by the name of the Zend ; it is also styled the Avestan, and sometimes the Old Bactrian, from the country Bactria, the north-easternmost region of the great Iranian territory, which is supposed to have been its specific locality.

• Zend-Avesta