What it means
کینه (kine) is grudge or spite, the slow-burning resentment that settles in after a perceived wrong and stays. Unlike خشم (khashm, anger), which flares and fades, kine is patient and quiet. It waits. The word comes from Middle Persian kên, and is one of the most ancient emotion words in the language, appearing in the Shahnameh repeatedly in the context of blood-feuds and long vengeances. Today it is used in ordinary life for anything from a sibling rivalry to a neighbor dispute that never fully healed. کینهتوزی (kine-tuzi) means the act of nursing a grudge, and کینهتوز (kine-tuz) is the person who does it.
How to use it
- کینهش رو به دل گرفته (kine-sh ro be del gerefte) “He’s taken the grudge to heart”
- کینه داری یا بخشیدیش؟ (kine dâri yâ bakhshidish?) “Are you holding a grudge or have you forgiven him?”
- آدم کینهتوزی نیستم (âdam-e kine-tuzi nistam) “I’m not the kind of person who nurses grudges”
- از اون روز کینهش به دلمه (az un ruz kine-sh be delmeh) “Since that day I’ve had a grudge against him”
Cultural note
In the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, کینه drives some of the epic’s most powerful narrative arcs, including the multi-generational vengeance cycles between Iran and Turan. The concept of کینهخواهی, literally “seeking the grudge” or taking revenge, is treated in classical literature as both a moral obligation between blood relatives and a dangerous force that destroys families. In modern colloquial Persian the word has lost none of its weight, though its scale is more domestic. کینه به دل گرفتن, “to take a grudge to heart,” is the standard verbal phrase.