What it means
ماوس (maws) is Persian for computer mouse, taken directly from the English word. The English vowel sound in mouse is rendered as the long vowel او in Persian script, giving ماوس. It refers to the handheld pointing device used with computers. Unlike some other technology loanwords, ماوس has no widely used formal Persian alternative in everyday circulation: the Academy proposed موشواره (moshvareh), but that coinage never caught on outside a narrow academic context, and Iranians uniformly say ماوس.
How to use it
- ماوسم کار نمیکنه. (mawsam kar nemikoneh.) “My mouse is not working.”
- یه ماوس بیسیم بخر. (ye maws bisim bekhar.) “Buy a wireless mouse.”
- ماوس رو با دست راست نگه میدارم. (maws ro ba dast rast negah midaram.) “I hold the mouse with my right hand.”
- پد ماوس کجاست؟ (pad maws kojast?) “Where is the mouse pad?”
Cultural note
Iranian tech culture adopted ماوس so completely that even the compound پد ماوس (pad maws, mouse pad) has become standard speech. The Academy of Persian Language and Literature suggested موشواره as a formal replacement, a word combining موش (mush, mouse the animal) with the suffix واره (vareh, meaning resembling or something like), but the suggestion never displaced ماوس in either formal or informal use. This makes ماوس one of the more stable English loanwords in Iranian tech vocabulary.