What it means
برقکار (barqkâr) means electrician, the skilled tradesperson who installs, maintains, and repairs electrical wiring, fittings, and equipment. The word is a compound formed from two parts: برق (barq), which comes from Arabic برق (barq = lightning, and by extension electricity), plus کار (kâr), the native Persian word meaning work or worker. This Arabic-plus-Persian compound pattern is extremely common in modern Persian, where the Arabic root برق became the standard word for electricity, giving rise to a whole family of compounds. A related word is برقکشی (barq-keshi = electrical wiring or the act of running electrical cables).
How to use it
- باید زنگ بزنیم به برقکار. (bâyad zang bezanim be barqkâr.) “We need to call the electrician.”
- برقکار امروز میاد. (barqkâr emruz miyâd.) “The electrician is coming today.”
- داداشم برقکاره. (dâdâsham barqkâre.) “My brother is an electrician.”
- برقکار سیمها رو چک کرد. (barqkâr simhâ ro chek kard.) “The electrician checked the wires.”
Cultural note
In Iranian cities, برقکار typically refers to a self-employed or workshop-based tradesperson rather than a salaried utility worker. Homeowners call a برقکار for everything from new outlets to full apartment rewiring. The Arabic root برق took on the meaning of electricity in the modern era alongside the technology itself, and the compound برقکار was formed within Persian to name the new profession. The same root برق appears in words like تلگراف برقی (electric telegraph), آذرخش (a purely Persian poetic synonym for lightning), and the brand name of several Iranian electrical appliance companies.