اذیت

What it means

اذیت (âziyat) means bother, annoyance, discomfort, or harm. The word is borrowed from Arabic adhiyya or azan, from the root A-Dh-Y meaning to cause harm, pain, or irritation. Persian adopted it and formed the compound verb اذیت کردن (âziyat kardan, to bother, to annoy, or to hurt someone). The noun اذیت covers a range of unpleasantness from mild social irritation to physical pain. A closely related word is آزار (âzâr), which is the more formal Persian term for harm or torment, while اذیت is the everyday colloquial choice. In spoken Persian, اذیتت کردم؟ (âziyat-et kardam?, did I bother you? or did I hurt you?) is a common apology check, used both after physical clumsiness and after saying something that may have caused offence.

How to use it

• اذیتم نکن، خسته‌ام. (âziyatam nakon, khasteam.) “Don’t bother me, I’m tired.”
• این کفش‌ها پام رو اذیت می‌کنن. (in kafsh-hâ pâm ro âziyat mikonan.) “These shoes are hurting my feet.”
• اون همیشه بچه‌ها رو اذیت می‌کنه. (oon hamishe bachehâ ro âziyat mikone.) “He always bothers the kids.”
• گرما خیلی اذیتم می‌کنه. (garmâ kheyli âziyatam mikone.) “The heat really bothers me.”

Cultural note

The phrase اذیت نکن (âziyat nakon, don’t bother / don’t cause trouble) is one of the first corrective phrases Persian-speaking parents use with children, and it stays in the language as a gentle all-purpose request for others to stop being difficult. Because اذیت covers both physical discomfort and social annoyance in a single word, it shows up in a wide range of contexts: complaining about weather, noise, pain, or people. The breadth of its meaning makes it an efficient word to learn early, since it substitutes for several more specific complaints at once.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab