What it means
قلب (qalb) means the heart, the organ in your chest that pumps blood. It is a loanword from Arabic, where the root q-l-b carries the idea of turning over. In Persian this is the precise, anatomical and medical term, the one a doctor uses. Its close cousin دل (del) is the native Persian word, but دل leans toward feelings and the emotional heart, while قلب is what you point to on an x-ray.
How to use it
- قلبم تند میزنه (qalbam tond mizane) “My heart is beating fast.”
- دکتر گفت قلبم سالمه (doktor goft qalbam saalame) “The doctor said my heart is healthy.”
- درد قلب دارم (darde qalb daaram) “I have heart pain.”
- باید قلبت رو معاینه کنیم (baayad qalbet ro mo’aayene konim) “We need to examine your heart.”
Cultural note
In everyday speech Iranians often use دل (del) for the emotional heart, as in دلم برات تنگ شده (delam baraat tang shode), “I miss you.” When the topic turns to health, medicine, or the body, قلب takes over: both حمله قلبی (hamle-ye qalbi) and سکته قلبی (sekte-ye qalbi) mean a heart attack, with سکته قلبی being the more technical term a doctor uses. Cardiac arrest, when the heart stops beating, is a separate term, ایست قلبی (ist-e qalbi). So the two words split the work, دل for love and longing, قلب for the clinic.