What it means
دلخور (delkhor) describes the feeling of being upset, miffed, or quietly hurt, usually because of something a friend or family member said or did. The word is built from دل (del, heart) and خور from خوردن (khordan, to eat or to strike), so it literally carries the sense of the heart being struck. It sits at the lighter end of the emotional hurt scale: stronger than casual annoyance but not as deep as رنجیده (ranjide), which implies a more serious or lasting offence. In everyday speech, Iranians reach for delkhor whenever the hurt is real but the relationship is expected to recover.
How to use it
- از دستت دلخورم. (az dastat delkhoram.) “I am upset with you.”
- چرا دلخوری؟ چی شده؟ (chera delkhori? chi shode?) “Why are you upset? What happened?”
- نمیخوام دلخور بشی. (nemikham delkhor beshi.) “I do not want you to feel hurt.”
- اون از حرف من دلخور شد. (oon az harf-e man delkhor shod.) “They got upset because of what I said.”
Cultural note
In Iranian interpersonal culture, naming the emotion openly, saying delkhoram rather than staying silent, is often the socially accepted way to signal that a repair is needed without escalating to a full confrontation. The word implies the speaker still values the relationship. Leaving a delkhor feeling unacknowledged can quietly chip away at trust over time, which is why Iranians tend to address it directly and relatively quickly.