What it means
رم (ram) is the loaned English acronym for Random Access Memory, the temporary memory in a phone or computer. In Iran the word is part of basic tech-shopping vocabulary. Anyone walking into the phone bazaars on Jomhuri Street in Tehran or the computer shops on Sepahbod Qarani knows the difference between 4 gig ram, 8 gig ram, and 16 gig ram and uses those numbers to argue about price. The word is short, the concept is shared, and the conversation closes faster because of it.
How to use it
gushi-ye man 8 gig ram dare.
My phone has 8 GB of RAM.
گوشی من ۸ گیگ رم داره.
ram-e laptop-am kam-e, ye hafte-ye dige bayad avazesh konam.
My laptop’s RAM is too low, I have to swap it next week.
رم لپتاپم کمه، یه هفته دیگه باید عوضش کنم.
The shopping context
Ram is one of the three numbers anyone shopping for a phone or laptop in Iran will check, alongside هارد (hard, storage) and the processor name. Sellers in the bazaar lead with these specs before mentioning brand or camera, and any buyer who does not check them is marking themselves as a beginner. The pattern goes: how much ram, how much hard, what generation processor. Learners doing any electronics shopping in Iran need this trio in their working vocabulary by week one, otherwise they will not be able to follow the most basic shop conversation.
Where the word comes from
Ram entered Persian in the late 1990s with the personal computer wave, alongside ROM, BIOS, CPU, and other English computing terms. It is treated as a singular mass noun: you say یک گیگ رم (yek gig ram, one gig of RAM), not یک رم. The Farhangestan has at various points suggested حافظه (hafezeh, memory) or حافظهی موقت (hafezeh-ye movaqqat, temporary memory), but these are textbook terms only. No Iranian buying a phone says hafezeh-ye movaqqat. They say ram, every time.
What this shows
The vocabulary of hardware is one of the most thoroughly anglicized domains in modern Persian. Ram, hard, processor, motherboard, fan, port, jack, screen, all entered the language whole and stayed whole. The Pure Persian movement has effectively conceded this domain. The words are described here because they are the words people use, not because they are the words anyone official recommends.
References
ZabanYar is a Persian app built for heritage learners, the people who can speak a little but want to read, write, and really get it. Free early access at launch.
Join the waitlist →