ساعت

What it means

ساعت (sâ’at) means “hour,” “clock,” or “wristwatch”, the same word covers all three. Arabic loanword, foundational A1 vocabulary, indispensable for telling time. The apostrophe marks a glottal stop between â and a.

How to use it

• ساعت چند است؟ (sâ’at chand ast?) “What time is it?”
• ساعت ده صبح (sâ’at-e dah-e sobh) “10 in the morning”
• دو ساعت طول کشید (do sâ’at tul keshid) “It took two hours”

Common pairings

• ساعت مچی (sâ’at-e mochi) “wristwatch”
• ساعت دیواری (sâ’at-e divâri) “wall clock”
• ساعت زنگ‌دار (sâ’at-e zang-dâr) “alarm clock”
• نیم ساعت (nim sâ’at) “half an hour”

Etymology

From Arabic ساعة (sâ’a, “hour, moment”), itself from a Semitic root meaning “to come, arrive.” The triliteral root س و ع. The Pure Persian alternative گاه (gâh, “time”) survives in compounds like صبحگاه (sobhgâh) and شامگاه (shâmgâh), but ساعت dominates everyday speech.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Wiktionary