نخل
نخل (nakhl) means palm tree and is borrowed directly from Arabic. In Persian, it refers specifically to the date palm and carries deep cultural and religious significance, particularly in southern Iran.
Glossary
صنوبر
صنوبر (senowbar) is borrowed from Arabic and refers in modern Persian primarily to the poplar tree, though classical usage also covered pine and fir. It appears frequently in poetry for its tall, upright form.
بلوط
بلوط (balut) means oak tree and also acorn. The word entered Persian from Aramaic via Middle Persian and has since spread across Arabic, Turkish, and other regional languages as well.
کاج
کاج (kâj) is the Persian word for the pine tree. Its needle-like leaves and cone-shaped fruit make it unmistakable, and it covers large areas of the Alborz and Zagros mountain ranges in Iran.
چنار
چنار (chenâr) is the oriental plane tree, a native Persian word inherited from Middle Persian. Its massive canopy and ancient trunks define the landscape of many historic Iranian cities and courtyards.
بید
بید (bid) is the Persian word for the willow tree. Its slender, drooping branches appear in classical poetry as a symbol of grief and longing across centuries of Persian literature.
آتشفشان
آتشفشان (âtashfeshân) means “volcano” in Persian. It is a native Persian compound built from âtash (fire) and feshân (spraying), coined to name the geological phenomenon without borrowing from another language.
زلزله
زلزله (zelzele) means “earthquake” in Persian. The word comes directly from Arabic, where the root ز-ل-ز-ل means to shake or tremble. The native Persian equivalent is زمینلرزه (zaminlarze).
قنات
قنات (qanât) is an underground aqueduct system invented in ancient Iran. The word is Arabic in form, but the technology itself is a Persian engineering achievement listed on UNESCO’s Intangible Heritage list.
جوی
جوی (juy) means a small stream, gutter channel, or irrigation ditch in Persian. An old Persian word for running water in a narrow channel. Tehran’s street gutters, called jub, come from the same root.