What it means
سهام (sahâm) means shares or stocks, as in units of ownership in a company. It is the plural of سهم (sahm), borrowed from Arabic, where the root س-ه-م originally referred to a portion or an arrow. In modern Persian, sahâm is the standard financial term for equity shares, whether in a private company or on the stock market. A close related term is سهم (sahm), which refers to a single share or portion, while سهام covers shares as a class or in bulk.
How to use it
- سهام این شرکت رو خریدم. (sahâm-e in sherkat ro kharid-am.) “I bought shares in this company.”
- قیمت سهام داره میاد پایین. (qeymat-e sahâm dâre miad pâyin.) “The share price is going down.”
- چقدر سهام داری؟ (cheghadr sahâm dâri?) “How many shares do you have?”
- سهام بانک ملی رو فروختم. (sahâm-e bank-e melli ro forukhta-m.) “I sold my Bank Melli shares.”
Cultural note
The Tehran Stock Exchange, known as بورس اوراق بهادار تهران, has grown significantly since the early 2000s, and sahâm has become a household word in Iran. During periods of currency instability, many Iranian families have turned to the stock market as a store of value, making sahâm part of everyday financial conversation. The government’s push to list state-owned companies in the early 2020s brought millions of new retail investors into the market for the first time.