قطع

What it means

قطع (ghat’) comes from Arabic قَطَعَ (qata’a, to cut). In Persian it covers physical cutting and any form of disconnection or interruption: a phone call cuts out (تلفن قطع شد, telefon ghat’ shod), electricity goes off (برق قطع شد, bargh ghat’ shod), relations are severed (رابطه رو قطع کرد, râbete ro ghat’ kard), and a road is blocked (جاده قطع شده, jâde ghat’ shode). The apostrophe in the transliteration ghat’ represents the Arabic consonant عین in the original root, which is present in the Persian pronunciation as a slight glottal quality. The verb pair قطع کردن / قطع شدن follows the standard transitive-intransitive pattern.

How to use it

• برق قطع شد (bargh ghat’ shod) “The electricity was cut / there’s a power cut.”
• تلفنت رو قطع نکن (telefon-et ro ghat’ nakon) “Don’t hang up your phone.”
• رابطه‌مونو قطع کرد (râbete-muno ghat’ kard) “He cut off our relationship.”
• اینترنت دوباره قطع شده (internet dobâre ghat’ shode) “The internet has cut out again.”

Cultural note

قطع برق (ghat’-e bargh, power cut) is a phrase that resonates with daily experience for many Iranians, where unannounced power outages have been a recurring feature of urban life, especially during hot summers when electricity demand peaks. The phrase is used matter-of-factly, without drama. Similarly قطع کردن a phone call is the standard term for hanging up, making this one of the most practically useful vocabulary items for anyone living in or communicating with Iran.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab