What it means
بخیه (bakhye) means a surgical stitch or suture, and it comes from Arabic bakhya (بَخْيَة), which carried the sense of sewing or stitching. In Persian the word is used for both a single stitch and the act of stitching a wound, so you can say “bakhye zadan” (to stitch) or ask how many stitches (chand tâ bakhye). The verb بخیه زدن (bakhye zadan, to stitch a wound) is the standard phrase doctors and patients use. A near-synonym for the entire wound-closure process is بستن زخم (bastan-e zakhm), but bakhye is the more specific and common clinical term.
How to use it
- باید بخیه بزنن. (bâyad bakhye bezanan.) “They need to stitch it up.”
- چند تا بخیه زدن؟ (chand tâ bakhye zadan?) “How many stitches did they put in?”
- بخیهام رو کِی باید بکشن؟ (bakhye-hâm-o key bâyad bekeshan?) “When do I need to have my stitches removed?”
- زخمت بخیه میخواد. (zakhmât bakhye mikhâd.) “Your wound needs stitches.”
Cultural note
In Iran, minor wound stitching is done at urgent-care clinics (درمانگاه, darmângâh) as well as hospital emergency rooms. Patients are advised to return after five to ten days to have the stitches removed (bakhye keshidan), a phrase that is very commonly heard. In informal speech, people sometimes use the word bakhye metaphorically to mean patching something up, though that figurative use is less common than the medical one.