What it means
پلیکان (pelikan) is the Persian name for the pelican, a large water bird recognized by its distinctive throat pouch used to catch and drain fish before swallowing. The word is a loanword that entered Persian via French pelican or English pelican, both of which derive ultimately from Greek pelekan. In Persian it is a modern zoological borrowing with no classical-era equivalent, and it is used in both everyday speech and nature writing with no change in form from its European source. The word is not related to any Arabic or Turkic root.
How to use it
- پلیکانها در کنار دریا ماهی میگیرند. (pelikan-ha dar kenar-e darya mahi mi-girand.) “Pelicans catch fish by the sea.”
- کیسهی زیر منقار پلیکان خیلی بزرگه. (kise-ye zir-e manqar-e pelikan kheyli bozorg-e.) “The pouch under a pelican’s beak is very large.”
- در مستند طبیعت پلیکانهای سفید نشان داده شدند. (dar mostanad-e tabi’at pelikan-ha-ye sefid neshan dade shodand.) “White pelicans were shown in the nature documentary.”
- بچهها در باغوحش پلیکان دیدند. (bacheh-ha dar bagh-vahsh pelikan didand.) “The children saw a pelican at the zoo.”
Cultural note
The pelican is not a bird with deep roots in classical Persian poetry or Iranian cultural tradition, as it is not native to most of the Iranian plateau. However, pelicans do visit wetlands in northern Iran, particularly around the Caspian coast and Anzali Lagoon, and they appear in modern Iranian wildlife photography and conservation literature. The word پلیکان entered Persian in the modern era alongside many other European zoological terms, part of a broader wave of scientific vocabulary adopted from French and English during the Qajar and Pahlavi periods.