The earliest known usage of the name Hindu Kush occurs on a map published about 1000 AD. The Hindu Kush was known in Vedic #Sanskrit as upariśyena, and in Avestan as upāirisaēna (from Proto-Iranian *upārisaina- ‘covered with juniper’). In the time of #Alexander the Great, the mountain range was referred to as the Caucasus Indicus (as opposed to the Greater Caucasus range between the Caspian and Black Seas), and as Paropamisadae by Hellenic #Greeks in the late first millennium BC. In Persian it is known as Hindu Kush.
indu Kush is generally translated as “Killer of #Hindu” or “Hindu-Killer”.Boyle’s #Persian-English dictionary indicates that the suffix -koš [koʃ] is the present stem of the verb ‘to kill’ (koštan کشتن). According to linguist Francis Joseph Steingass, the suffix -kush means ‘a male; (imp. of kushtan in comp.) a killer, who kills, slays, murders, oppresses as azhdaha-kush.’
