دقیقه

What it means

دقیقه (daqiqeh) is the everyday Persian word for a minute. It is borrowed from Arabic دقيقة (daqiqa), derived from دقيق (daqiq), meaning “fine, precise, or minute in size.” The connection is that a minute is a precise, small subdivision of time. You will hear this word constantly: in scheduling, cooking, waiting, and casual conversation. A related word worth knowing is لحظه (lahzeh), which means a brief, indefinite moment rather than an exact sixty seconds.

How to use it

• ده دقیقه دیگه می‌رسم. (dah daqiqeh dige miresam.) “I’ll arrive in ten minutes.”
• فقط یه دقیقه وقت داری؟ (faqat ye daqiqeh vaqt dari?) “Do you have just one minute?”
• غذا بیست دقیقه‌ای آماده می‌شه. (ghazâ bist daqiqeh-i âmâdeh mishe.) “The food will be ready in about twenty minutes.”
• دقیقه به دقیقه داره چک می‌کنه. (daqiqeh be daqiqeh dâre chek mikone.) “He is checking it minute by minute.”

Cultural note

In Persian casual speech, دقیقه sometimes floats as a polite way to buy time, as in “give me a minute.” Iranian culture around punctuality is famously flexible: an event said to start at a certain hour may begin دقیقه‌ها later. The adjective دقیق (daqiq) from the same Arabic root also means “precise” or “exact” in Persian, making the word family easy to remember together.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab