مشکوک

What it means

مشکوک (mashkuk) means suspicious, suspect, or dubious. It is borrowed from Arabic مَشْكُوك (mashkuk), the passive participle of شَكَّ (shakka), meaning to doubt or to be uncertain, from the Arabic root ش-ك-ك (sh-k-k) carrying the sense of piercing, splitting, and by extension uncertainty or doubt. So the literal Arabic sense is that which is doubted or about which doubt exists. In Persian it functions as a straightforward adjective: a person, a situation, a package, or a story can all be مشکوک. The related verb مشکوک شدن (mashkuk shodan) means to become suspicious or to begin to doubt. A near synonym is مشکوک‌انگیز (mashkuk-anghiz, doubt-arousing), though this is less common. The opposite is مطمئن (motma’en, certain) or قابل اعتماد (ghâbel-e e’temâd, trustworthy).

How to use it

• این آدم خیلی مشکوکه. (in âdam kheyli mashkuke.) “This person is very suspicious.”
• رفتارش مشکوک به نظر میرسه. (raftâresh mashkuk be nazar mirese.) “His behavior seems suspicious.”
• یه بسته‌ی مشکوک پیدا کردن. (ye baste-ye mashkuk peydâ kardan.) “They found a suspicious package.”
• از همون اول بهش مشکوک بودم. (az hamun aval behesh mashkuk budam.) “I was suspicious of him from the very beginning.”

Cultural note

In spoken Persian, مشکوک is a word with a wide range of tones depending on context. In light everyday use it can describe anything that seems a bit off, from a fishy deal to a too-good-to-be-true story. In more serious contexts, particularly in news reporting and legal language, it carries the weight of the English word suspect. Iranians also use the phrase برام مشکوکه (barâm mashkuke, it seems suspicious to me) conversationally to signal doubt or disbelief without being blunt.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab