مرد

What it means

مرد (mard) means “man”, adult male. Pure Persian, A1 foundational vocabulary. Can also mean “husband” in colloquial speech and carries connotations of integrity (“a real man”) in idioms.

How to use it

• یک مرد (yek mard) “a man”
• مردها (mard-hâ) “men”
• مرد خوبی است (mard-e khubi ast) “He is a good man”

Common pairings

• مردانه (mardâne) “manly, men’s”
• مردانگی (mardânegi) “manliness, integrity, courage”
• جوانمرد (javân-mard) “chivalrous, gallant”
• مرد و زن (mard-o-zan) “men and women”

Etymology

From Proto-Indo-European *mer- (“to die”), the root that gives English “mortal,” “murder,” and Latin mors. The original sense was “mortal one, the one who dies”, the same root in Avestan as marəta-. The Persian word جوانمرد (javân-mard) became the medieval ideal of the chivalric gentleman, parallel to Arabic فتى (fatâ).

References

• Dehkhoda
• Wiktionary