What it means
پلهبرقی (pelle-barghi) is the everyday Persian word for an escalator, literally a staircase powered by electricity. The word is a compound: پله (pelle, step or stair) is native Persian, while برقی (barghi, electric) derives from برق (barq), a confirmed Arabic borrowing meaning lightning or electricity. A close contrast is آسانسور (âsânsor), the Persian word for elevator, which is a French loanword. Where an escalator moves you horizontally while climbing, آسانسور takes you straight up in a cabin.
How to use it
- پلهبرقی خراب شده، باید از راهپله بریم. (pelle-barghi kharâb shode, bâyad az râh-pelle berim.) “The escalator is broken, we have to take the stairs.”
- بچه رو روی پلهبرقی نگهدار. (bache ro ruye pelle-barghi negah-dâr.) “Hold the child on the escalator.”
- پلهبرقی مترو همیشه شلوغه. (pelle-barghi metro hamishe sholughe.) “The metro escalator is always crowded.”
- پلهبرقی بالا رفتنی یا پایین اومدنی؟ (pelle-barghi bâlâ raftani yâ pâyin umadani?) “Is this escalator going up or coming down?”
Cultural note
Escalators became common in Iran with the rapid expansion of Tehran’s metro system, which opened its first line in 1999. In large shopping complexes such as Palladium or Kourosh in Tehran, multiple banks of پلهبرقی define the vertical flow of thousands of daily visitors. Iranians often stand on one side and leave the other side free for people in a hurry, a courtesy more observed in Tehran than in smaller cities.