Definition of "Zend"

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

1984, Mary Boyce, Textual Sources for the Study of Zoroastrianism, Manchester: UP, page 3

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

1878, Martin Haug, Essays on the Sacred Language, Writings, and Religion of the Parsis. Trübner, page 115

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

1819, William Erskine, “On the Sacred Books and Religion of the Parsis”, in Trans. of the Lit. Soc. of Bombay, II, 1820, page 312

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.

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