عمو

What it means

عمو (amu) means “paternal uncle,” your father’s brother. Persian uses two completely different words for paternal uncles (عمو) and maternal uncles (دایی), unlike English which collapses them into one “uncle.”

How to use it

• عموی من معلم است (amu-ye man mo’allem ast) “My uncle is a teacher”
• به عمو سلام کردم (be amu salâm kardam) “I greeted uncle”
• عمو حسین (amu hossein) “Uncle Hossein” (term of address)

Common pairings

• عمو زاده (amu-zâde) “paternal cousin”
• پسر عمو (pesar-amu) “male paternal cousin”
• دختر عمو (dokhtar-amu) “female paternal cousin”

Cultural note

The four uncle/aunt distinction (عمو, دایی, عمه, خاله) reflects how Persian kinship vocabulary tracks both gender and bloodline. This precision matters: a marriage between paternal cousins (پسر عمو and دختر عمو) is socially distinct from a marriage between maternal cousins (پسر دایی and دختر دایی).

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab