نیم

What it means

نیم (nim) is the Persian word for half. It is the only fractional word that earns A1 status because it shows up everywhere, in time, in food, in compound nouns, in idiomatic phrases. نیم ساعت (nim-saat) is half an hour, نیم روز (nim-rooz) is midday or half a day, نیم کیلو (nim-kilo) is half a kilo of whatever you are buying at the shop. The word is small, productive, and unavoidable.

How nim builds compounds

This is what makes nim different from the other fractions. It is more than a number, it is a productive prefix. Persian builds dozens of compound nouns with nim as the first piece:

• نیم ساعت (nim-saat), half an hour
• نیم روز (nim-rooz), midday, half a day
• نیم شب (nim-shab), midnight, the middle of the night
• نیم کاره (nim-kareh), half-finished, left incomplete
• نیم خورده (nim-khordeh), half-eaten
• نیم پز (nim-paz), half-cooked
• نیم تنه (nim-tane), torso, upper half of the body
• نیم رخ (nim-rokh), profile, half-face

You can almost always coin a new nim-compound and Iranians will understand you. The other fractional words, yek-charak and yek-sevvom, do not have this productive reach.

How to use it

nim-saat-e digar mirasam.

I will arrive in half an hour.

نیم ساعت دیگر می‌رسم.

panir-e nim-kilo mikham, lotfan.

I want half a kilo of cheese, please.

پنیر نیم کیلو می‌خوام، لطفا.

kar-am hanuz nim-kareh-st.

My work is still half-finished.

کارم هنوز نیم‌کاره‌ست.

Where it comes from

nim is a native Persian word from Middle Persian nem (half), with cognates across Indo-Iranian languages and a clear link to Sanskrit (and a distant family resemblance to Latin semi-). It is one of the oldest layers of Persian vocabulary, which is why it has stayed productive in compounding while younger fractions stayed bound to their numeric uses. Nim is the bones of Persian fraction talk.

In our voice

If you only learn one fraction in Persian, learn nim. You will use it for time, for portions, for halves of anything physical, and as the front piece of dozens of compounds you will hear in everyday speech. The other fractions are useful, but nim is essential.

References

• Dehkhoda, نیم
• Vajehyab, نیم