What it means
پانسمان کردن (pânsemân kardan) means to dress a wound, to bandage a cut, or to apply a medical dressing to an injury. The noun پانسمان (pânsemân) is borrowed from French pansement, which means dressing or bandage in a medical context. It entered Persian through the influence of French-educated Iranian physicians in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Combined with the native Persian light verb کردن (kardan, to do), it forms a standard compound verb used by medical professionals and ordinary speakers alike. The noun پانسمان can also stand alone to mean a dressing or bandage as an object.
How to use it
- زخمش رو پانسمان کردن. (zakhm-ash ro pânsemân kardan.) “They dressed his wound.”
- باید بری اورژانس تا زخمت رو پانسمان کنن. (bâyad beri oruzhâns tâ zakhm-et ro pânsemân konan.) “You need to go to the emergency room so they can bandage your wound.”
- پرستار زانوم رو پانسمان کرد. (parastâr zânu-am ro pânsemân kard.) “The nurse dressed my knee.”
- پانسمانش رو هر روز عوض کن. (pânsemân-ash ro har ruz avaz kon.) “Change the dressing every day.”
Cultural note
France had a strong influence on Iranian medicine, law, and higher education from the mid-nineteenth century onward. Many medical terms that entered Persian during the Qajar and early Pahlavi eras came through French rather than English, and پانسمان is one of the clearest examples of this. Today the word is fully naturalized and used without any sense of it being foreign. In pharmacies across Iran, pre-packaged wound dressings are commonly sold simply as پانسمان.