The Greeks (who had previously tended to use names related to "Median") began to use adjectives such as Pérsēs (Πέρσης), Persikḗ (Περσική) or Persís (Περσίς) in the fifth century BC to refer to Cyrus the Great's empire (a word understood to mean "country").[7] Such words were taken from the Old Persian Pārsa – the name of the people from whom Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid dynasty stemmed and over whom he first ruled (before he inherited or conquered other Iranian Kingdoms). Thus, the term Persian is an exonym and Iranians never historically referred to Iran by that exonym. The Pars tribe gave its name to the region where they lived (the modern day province is called Fars/Pars) but the province in ancient times was smaller than its current area.