What it means
اسکی (eski) means skiing, the sport of gliding over snow on long flat runners. The word is a loanword: its ultimate source is the Norwegian word ski, but it reached Persian through French, which served as the primary channel for modern sports and technical vocabulary in Iran during the late Qajar and Pahlavi periods. In everyday speech Iranians use اسکی both for the sport itself and informally for the skis as equipment. A related term is اسکی بازی (eski-bâzi), meaning the act of skiing.
How to use it
- دوست دارم اسکی یاد بگیرم. (dust dâram eski yâd begiram.) “I would like to learn to ski.”
- این زمستان رفتیم اسکی. (in zemestân raftim eski.) “This winter we went skiing.”
- پیست اسکی دیزین خیلی شلوغ بود. (pist-e eski-ye Dizin kheyli sholugh bud.) “The Dizin ski slope was very crowded.”
- اسکی یک ورزش گرانقیمت است. (eski yek varzesh-e gerân-qeymat ast.) “Skiing is an expensive sport.”
Cultural note
Iran has a long skiing tradition centred on the Alborz mountains north of Tehran. Resorts such as Dizin, Shemshak, and Tochal attract thousands of skiers each season and are among the highest-altitude ski resorts in the world. Dizin, opened in 1969, has hosted international FIS competitions and sits above 3,600 metres at its peak. Skiing became fashionable among Tehran’s urban middle class during the Pahlavi era and remains popular today despite the cost of equipment and lift passes.