آبرو

/ aberu /

noun · dignity, social face

Meaning

معنی

Built from آب (âb, "water") + رو (ru, "face"), "the water of the face." The image is the moisture or freshness of dignity that gives the face its shine; lose it, and the face goes dry, gray, shamed. آبرو operates in tandem with تعارف (tâ'arof) and شخصیت (shakhsiyat). Iranians work hard to preserve their family's آبرو and avoid آبروریزی (public scandal). The closest English approximations are "face" or "honor," but آبرو carries the specific Iranian sense of public dignity worth preserving at significant cost.

How it's used

Aberu is universal across all Persian-speaking regions, but its intensity varies. In Tehran middle-class and upper-middle-class circles, aberu attaches strongly to professional reputation and family standing in social media-visible ways. In smaller cities (Yazd, Kerman, Tabriz) and rural areas, aberu is more tightly tied to extended family and neighborhood standing; a single transgression follows you longer. Diaspora communities preserve aberu within Iranian-Iranian relationships but it loses force when interacting with non-Iranians. Younger urban Iranians sometimes mock the concept openly while still living by its rules in family settings.

In a sentence

مثال

آبرویم رفت

âberu-yam raft

My honor was lost (literally my âberu went)

The company it keeps

هم‌نشین‌ها

You rarely meet a word alone — here it is, at work beside others.

آبروریزی

âberu-rizi

scandal, public humiliation (literally âberu-spilling)

آبرومند

âberumand

respectable, dignified

بی‌آبرو

bi-âberu

without honor, disgraced

آبرو خریدن

âberu kharidan

to gain face by lavishness

In its constellation

در پیوند

No word stands alone. Follow a thread to the words it lives beside — hover to read one, click to open it.

See it in the whole constellation →

آبروaberu

سنگ پا شدنsang-pâ shodan گیسوgisu ابروabru خریدنkharidan سر زبان افتادنsar-e zabân oftâdan غیرتgheyrat

آبروaberu

keeps company with ۶ words