باحال

What it means

باحال (bâ-hâl) means “cool, fun, awesome, in a good mood.” Tehran-origin colloquialism, A2 vocabulary. Used freely by younger Iranians for anything enjoyable: a person, a film, a party, a phone.

How to use it

• این فیلم خیلی باحاله (in film kheyli bâhâle) “This movie is really cool”
• چه بچه باحالی! (che bach-che bâhâli!) “What a fun kid!”
• باحال بود (bâhâl bud) “It was great”

Common pairings

• بی‌حال (bi-hâl) “lifeless, dull, listless” (antonym)
• حال (hâl) “mood, state, condition”
• حال کردن (hâl kardan) “to enjoy, have fun”
• توپ (tup) “great, awesome” (alternative slang)

Etymology

Built from با (bâ, “with”) + حال (hâl, “mood, condition, vibe”, Arabic loan). Persian uses با as a productive prefix to mean “having”: باسواد (bâ-savâd, “literate, with-knowledge”), بامزه (bâ-maze, “tasteful, with-taste”), باشخصیت (bâ-shakhsiyat, “with-character”). The opposite prefix بی (bi, “without”) creates the negation: بی‌حال (bi-hâl), بی‌سواد (bi-savâd), بی‌مزه (bi-maze).

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab