خواهر

What it means

خواهر (khâhar) means “sister.” Native Persian word from Old Persian *xwahar, related to English “sister” and Latin “soror” through the deep Indo-European root.

How to use it

• دو خواهر دارم (do khâhar dâram) “I have two sisters”
• خواهر بزرگم در تهران زندگی می‌کند (khâhar-e bozorg-am dar tehrân zendegi mikonad) “My older sister lives in Tehran”
• خواهر و برادر دوست هستند (khâhar-o barâdar dust hastand) “The sister and brother are friends”

Common pairings

• خواهر بزرگ (khâhar-e bozorg) “older sister”
• خواهر کوچک (khâhar-e kuchak) “younger sister”
• خواهرزاده (khâhar-zâde) “sister’s child, niece or nephew”
• خواهر و برادری (khâhar-o-barâdari) “sisterhood-brotherhood, siblinghood”

Etymology

خواهر traces back to Proto-Indo-European *swésōr, the same root that gave English “sister,” German “Schwester,” Latin “soror,” and Sanskrit “svásṛ.” Persian, English, and most European languages share this root from a common ancestor language spoken thousands of years ago.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab