What it means
نردبان (nardebân) is the Persian word for ladder, the portable climbing structure made of two side rails connected by rungs. The word is a compound of two old Persian elements: نرد (nard), which in its archaic sense means tree trunk or wooden pole, and بان (bân), a variant of بام (bâm) meaning roof. The compound thus evokes the idea of a wooden structure that gets you to the roof. The word is purely Persian in origin and was exported to neighboring languages, appearing in Ottoman Turkish as nerdiban and in Azerbaijani as nərdivan. There is no common synonym in everyday Persian speech.
How to use it
- نردبان رو بیار تا بتونم لامپ رو عوض کنم. (nardebân ro biâr tâ betoonam lâmp ro avaz konam.) “Bring the ladder so I can change the bulb.”
- نردبان رو محکم نگهدار که نیفته. (nardebân ro mohkam negahdâr ke neyofte.) “Hold the ladder steady so it does not fall.”
- نردبان رو تکیه دادم به دیوار. (nardebân ro takyeh dâdam be divâr.) “I leaned the ladder against the wall.”
- برای رنگ کردن سقف باید از نردبان بری بالا. (barâye rang kardan-e saqf bâyad az nardebân beri bâlâ.) “To paint the ceiling you have to go up on the ladder.”
Cultural note
Traditional Iranian houses with flat mud-brick roofs relied on portable wooden ladders for roof access, since rooftops were used for drying fruit, sleeping in summer, and social gatherings. The word نردبان carries this long domestic history. In Persian figurative language, نردبان is used as a metaphor for social advancement: the phrase نردبان ترقی (nardebân-e taraqqui), meaning the ladder of progress or success, is a common idiom heard in both everyday speech and formal writing.