عاشق

What it means

عاشق (âsheq) means “lover, the one in love, infatuated.” Arabic loanword, A2 vocabulary. Carries the full romantic and mystic charge of Persian love poetry, the lover seeking the beloved معشوق (ma’shuq).

How to use it

• عاشقت هستم (âsheqet hastam) “I am in love with you”
• یک عاشق دلباخته (yek âsheq-e delbâkhte) “an enamored lover”
• عاشق غذای ایرانی هستم (âsheq-e ghazâ-ye Irâni hastam) “I love Iranian food”

Common pairings

• معشوق (ma’shuq) “beloved” (the object of love)
• عشق (eshq) “love” (the abstract noun)
• عاشقی کردن (âsheqi kardan) “to be in love, to court”
• عاشقانه (âsheqâne) “lovingly, romantic”

Etymology

From Arabic عاشق (ʿāshiq), the active participle of عَشِقَ (ʿashiqa, “to love passionately”). Triliteral root ع ش ق. The same root yields عشق (eshq, “love”) and معشوق (ma’shuq, “beloved”). Persian Sufi poetry, Rumi, Hafez, Attar, built an entire metaphysics around the lover-beloved-love triangle, where the human عاشق mirrors the soul seeking the divine.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Wiktionary