What it means
مبدأ (mabda’) means origin, starting point, or first principle. It is borrowed from Arabic, where مبدأ comes from the root ب-د-أ (b-d-‘), meaning to begin or to originate. The hamza at the end is part of the original Arabic spelling and is preserved in formal Persian writing. In everyday Persian speakers might instead use شروع (shoru’) for a simple start or آغاز (âghâz) for a more literary beginning, but مبدأ is reserved for contexts where the foundational or principled nature of a starting point matters, as in geometry, philosophy, or historical periodization. The plural مبادئ (mabâde’) means principles or premises.
How to use it
- نقطه مبدأ در نقشه کجاست؟ (Noqte-ye mabda’ dar naqshe kojâst?) “Where is the origin point on the map?”
- مبدأ تاریخ ایران از کِیه؟ (Mabda’-ye târikh-e irân az kiye?) “From when does Iran’s history begin?”
- این مبدأ فکری رو قبول ندارم. (In mabda’-ye fekri ro qabul nadâram.) “I do not accept this intellectual principle.”
- مبدأ این جنبش کجاست؟ (Mabda’-ye in jonbesh kojâst?) “What is the origin of this movement?”
Cultural note
In traditional Islamic philosophy as studied in Iranian seminaries (حوزه, howze), مبادئ refers to the foundational premises or axioms from which an argument is built, a usage going back to Arabic translations of Aristotle’s works. In modern Iran the word also appears in technical contexts such as coordinate geometry, where نقطه مبدأ (noqte-ye mabda’) means the origin point on a graph. The formal register of مبدأ means you will rarely hear it in casual conversation, but it appears often in academic lectures and serious journalism.