What it means
کت (kot) refers to a jacket or blazer, the kind of structured outer garment worn over a shirt for work or more formal settings. The word is borrowed from French cotte, meaning a type of short outer garment, which entered Persian during the period of Western cultural influence in Iran in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In modern spoken Persian, کت usually means a suit jacket or blazer rather than a full-length overcoat. The compound کت و شلوار (kot o shalvâr) is the standard phrase for a suit, literally meaning jacket and trousers.
How to use it
- کتت رو در بیار، گرمه. (Kotat ro dar biyâr, garme.) “Take your jacket off, it’s warm.”
- کت و شلوار پوشیدی؟ (Kot o shalvâr pushidi?) “Did you wear a suit?”
- این کت به این شلوار نمیاد. (In kot be in shalvâr nemiyâd.) “This jacket doesn’t go with these trousers.”
- کتم جا موند. (Kotam jâ mond.) “I left my jacket behind.”
Cultural note
The کت و شلوار, the Western-style suit, became a symbol of modernity and official status in Iran from the late Qajar period onward. Reza Shah’s Europeanisation policies in the 1920s and 1930s actively promoted Western dress, including the suit jacket, as part of state-mandated modernisation. Today, کت remains the expected dress code for business meetings, formal ceremonies, and government offices. In more traditional or religious contexts, a long coat called مانتو (mânto) for women and a plain jacket for men serves a similar social function without the same Western connotations.