What it says
آب توی دهن (âb tu-ye dahân) is the Persian way to admit you are hungry for what someone is describing. The phrase combines آب (âb, water), توی (tu-ye, inside), and دهن (dahân, mouth, the colloquial form of دهان). “Water in the mouth.” The full sentence runs: از شنیدن اسمش آبم تو دهنم اومد (az shenidan-e esm-ash âb-am tu dahan-am umad), “from hearing its name, water came into my mouth.”
How to use it
- آبم تو دهنم اومد (âb-am tu dahan-am umad) “My mouth is watering”
- اسم قرمهسبزی رو که آوردی، آب تو دهنم جمع شد (esm-e ghorme-sabzi-o ke âvardi, âb tu dahan-am jam’ shod) “You said the word ghorme-sabzi and water gathered in my mouth”
- این عکسا آب تو دهن آدم میاره (in aks-â âb tu dahan-e âdam miyâre) “These photos make a person’s mouth water”
The literal meaning
Water in the mouth. The Persian is anatomically precise and matter-of-fact. The body’s response to a craving is salivation, and Persian names it directly without dressing it up.
The figurative meaning
The idiom names the moment a food memory or food image triggers physical hunger. Iranians use it about specific dishes: ghorme-sabzi, kebab-koobideh, fesenjân, the herb-filled rice their mother makes for Nowruz. The phrase carries warmth and a slight comedy. It is also used outside food, by extension, for any object of desire that pulls a physical reaction. A new car, a beach view, a job posting. The body wants what it wants and Persian lets you say so. Iranian food talk is a near-constant conversational genre, and saying آبم تو دهنم اومد is one of the most reliable ways to keep that conversation going. It is a compliment to the cook, a self-effacing admission of hunger, and a small social bond all at once.
Related expressions
هوس (havas) is the bigger word for craving, both for food and other appetites. اشتها (eshtehâ, appetite) is the clinical sibling. ضعف کردن (za’f kardan, “to grow weak,” usually translated “to be famished”) is the dramatic Iranian way to announce hunger that is past politeness. لبولوچه را لیسیدن (lab-o-luche râ lisidan, “to lick one’s lips”) is the visual cousin of the watering-mouth idiom. See دهن for the colloquial form of mouth and how it differs from دهان in formal Persian. For more food-driven Persian idioms, read our piece on the language of Iranian eating, which covers everything from kebab vocabulary to the specific verbs used for tea.
References
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