خر

What it means

خر (khar) literally means “donkey.” In everyday speech it is the standard Persian insult for calling someone stupid or gullible. The animal sense is neutral farm vocabulary; the insult sense is what you will actually hear in conversation. Not to be confused with خار (khâr, with a long vowel), which means “thorn.”

How to use it

• خر نشو! (khar nasho!) “Don’t be a fool!” Also said when someone is being pointlessly stubborn.
• مگه من خرم؟ (mage man kharam?) “Do you take me for an idiot?”
• منو خر فرض نکن. (mano khar farz nakon.) “Don’t treat me like a fool.”

Common pairings

• خرتوخر (khar-tu-khar) “total chaos, a free-for-all,” literally donkeys tangled with donkeys
• خرپول (khar-pul) “filthy rich,” khar as a colloquial intensifier meaning “mega”
• خرخوانی (khar-khâni) “cramming,” the brute-force all-night studying before an exam
• خرکیف شدن (khar-keyf shodan) “to be over the moon,” so pleased you drop all dignity

Cultural note

In English, calling someone a donkey suggests stubbornness. In Persian, خر is about foolishness first: the donkey is the culture’s shorthand for someone easily fooled or slow to catch on, a role it also plays across Persian proverbs. Between close friends, especially in casual Tehrani speech, خر flips into rough affection, the way “you idiot” can be warm in English banter. From a stranger, it is a genuine insult, so read the room before trying it. The word is pure Persian, attested as xar in Middle Persian, and it doubles as a slangy intensifier prefix in words like خرپول and خرکیف.