سگ

What it means

سگ (sag) means “dog.” Three letters, pure Persian, one of the oldest words in the language. The plural is سگ‌ها (sag-hâ), and the diminutive سگ‌کوچولو (sag-kuchulu) covers “puppy” in casual speech.

The word has a flatter, more neutral register than English “dog” in some contexts and a sharper one in others, depending on how it’s deployed.

How to use it

• سگ خانگی (sag-e khânegi) “house dog, pet dog”
• سگ ولگرد (sag-e velgard) “stray dog”
• سگ پلیس (sag-e polis) “police dog”
• سگ پارس می‌کند (sag pârs mikonad) “the dog barks”
• سگ گله (sag-e galle) “sheepdog”

Dogs in Iranian life: the honest picture

Dogs occupy a complicated position in Iranian culture. In some Sunni and Shia jurisprudential traditions, dogs are considered ritually impure (نجس, najes), meaning physical contact requires ablution. This shaped centuries of household practice: dogs were working animals (sheepdogs, guard dogs, hunting dogs) but rarely indoor pets.

The picture has shifted considerably in recent decades. Middle-class urban Iranians, especially in Tehran, Mashhad, Isfahan, and Shiraz, increasingly keep pet dogs. Dog parks, dog cafes, and pet stores have multiplied. Vets specialize in companion animals. Younger generations consider their dogs family.

Public space is where the friction shows up. Tehran has periodically enforced regulations against transporting dogs in cars and walking them in public, with enforcement intensity varying year to year and district to district. The penalty rules and their actual application drift, so any specific claim about “the law right now” goes stale fast.

The word as insult

Calling a person سگ in Persian is a serious insult. Not the casual “dog” of English (“hey dog!”). The Persian use is closer to using “dog” in Arabic or Russian, freighted with the religious-impurity association. Native speakers don’t drop سگ as a casual descriptor for a person without intending offense.

The compound سگ صفت (sag-sefat, “dog-natured”) describes someone treacherous and cruel. The phrase زندگی سگی (zendegi-ye sagi, “a dog’s life”) means a miserable life. Most idioms with sag in them have negative weight.

Mnemonic

SAG → سگ. Picture a Tehrani sheepdog in a mountain village near Damavand, working stock, respected, kept outside.