What it means
اجاق گاز (ojâq-e gâz) means gas stove or gas cooker, the burner-top cooking appliance found in virtually every Iranian kitchen. اجاق (ojâq) is borrowed from Turkish “ocak,” meaning hearth or furnace, and has been part of Persian for centuries. گاز (gâz) entered Persian from French and English “gas.” Together they name the specific appliance: a freestanding or countertop unit with open flame burners. A close related term is اجاق برقی (ojâq-e barqi), an electric cooktop.
How to use it
- اجاق گاز رو روشن کن (ojâq-e gâz ro rowshan kon) “Turn on the gas stove”
- غذا روی اجاق گاز داره میسوزه (ghazâ ruye ojâq-e gâz dâre misooze) “The food is burning on the stove”
- اجاق گاز ما خراب شده (ojâq-e gâz-e mâ kharâb shode) “Our gas stove has broken down”
- قبل از خواب اجاق گاز رو خاموش کن (qabl az khâb ojâq-e gâz ro khâmush kon) “Turn off the gas stove before you sleep”
Cultural note
The gas stove sits at the center of Iranian domestic life. Most urban Iranian apartments are connected to the municipal gas network, and cooking on an open flame is the default, not the exception. The word اجاق on its own, without گاز, carries an older, warmer connotation: the household hearth, the family fire. Saying someone’s اجاق is خاموش (khâmush, extinguished) is a poetic way of saying their household is gone or their lineage has ended.