اجتماعی

What it means

اجتماعی (ejtemai) is the Persian adjective social. It comes from اجتماع (ejtema, a gathering, an assembly, by extension society as the gathering of people), with the productive -i suffix. The word covers social in the broad sociological sense (social class, social problem, social media) and in the narrower civic sense (social work, social welfare).

The ejtemai / siasi pair

Iranian journalism leans on the pair اجتماعی و سیاسی (ejtemai o siasi, social and political) the way English leans on socio-political. The phrase appears in newspaper section names, in book titles, in op-ed framings. Both adjectives are Arabic-rooted, both use the same -i adjectivizing suffix (which is itself Persian, not Arabic), both pair with their parent nouns:

• اجتماع (ejtema) gives اجتماعی (ejtemai)
• سیاست (siasat) gives سیاسی (siasi)

The paradigm is regular. Once you have the noun, the adjective comes for free.

How to use it

masael-e ejtemai-ye iran emruz pichide-tar shode.

Iran’s social problems have become more complex today.

مسائل اجتماعی ایران امروز پیچیده‌تر شده.

shabake-haye ejtemai roo-ye javanan asar-e ziadi gozashteand.

Social networks have had a large effect on young people.

شبکه‌های اجتماعی روی جوانان اثر زیادی گذاشته‌اند.

masuliyat-e ejtemai-ye sherkat-ha mohem ast.

Corporate social responsibility is important.

مسئولیت اجتماعی شرکت‌ها مهم است.

Where it comes from

The noun اجتماع is Arabic, the form VIII verbal noun of the root j-m-‘ (جمع, gathering), literally a coming-together. Persian borrowed it during the long medieval inflow of Arabic abstract vocabulary and added the native -i suffix to build the adjective. The combination is half-Arabic, half-Persian: an Arabic stem with a Persian termination, which is the normal shape of Iranian intellectual vocabulary.

References

• Dehkhoda, اجتماعی
• Vajehyab, اجتماعی