سنگ is the heaviest small word in Persian. It builds gravestones, cornerstones, marble floors, and a couple of sharp idioms.
What it means
سنگ (sang) means “stone” or “rock.” Pure Persian, A1, identical in formal and spoken registers. The word is the root of a long list of compound nouns: سنگ قبر (sang-e qabr, “gravestone”), سنگ مرمر (sang-e mar-mar, “marble”), سنگفرش (sang-farsh, “cobblestone pavement”), سنگ بنا (sang-e banâ, “foundation stone, cornerstone”), سنگتراش (sang-tarâsh, “stonecutter”). It also lives in idioms about weight, hardness, and stubbornness. Calling something سنگین (sangin, “heavy,” derived from sang) carries connotations of weight, gravity, and dignified seriousness all at once.
How to use it
- سنگ قبر (sang-e qabr) “gravestone”
- سنگ مرمر (sang-e mar-mar) “marble”
- سنگ پرت کردن (sang part kardan) “to throw a stone”
- سنگ بنا گذاشتن (sang-e banâ gozâshtan) “to lay the foundation stone”
In a sentence
- سنگ قبر پدربزرگم از مرمر سفیده. · sang-e qabr-e pedar-bozorgam az mar-mar-e sefid-e. · My grandfather’s gravestone is white marble.
- یه سنگ بزرگ جلوی در بود. · ye sang-e bozorg jelo-ye dar bud. · There was a big stone in front of the door.
- سنگ بنای ساختمون پارسال گذاشته شد. · sang-e banâ-ye sâkhtemun pârsâl gozâshte shod. · The building’s cornerstone was laid last year.
Cultural note
سنگ shows up wherever Iranians mark something permanent. Persian cemeteries are dense with carved سنگ قبر, often horizontal, often inscribed with a Hafez verse. Iranian architecture leans on stone: the takht-e jamshid columns at Persepolis, the marble floors of Safavid mosques, the cobbled back-alleys of Yazd. There is also an idiom, سنگ کسی را به سینه زدن (sang-e kasi râ be sine zadan, “to beat someone’s stone against your chest”), which means defending that person fiercely, the way a partisan stands up for an absent ally. The image is muscular and old, and you still hear it on news commentary. Another expression, سنگ تمام گذاشتن (sang-e tamâm gozâshtan, “to lay the complete stone”), means going all-out, sparing nothing, doing the full job, originally from masonry, now used for hospitality and effort. And the proverb سنگ بزرگ علامت نزدنه (sang-e bozorg alâmat-e nazadan-e, “a big stone is a sign you won’t throw it”) is a quiet warning about people who threaten too loudly: real action is smaller and quieter than the gesture promises.
References
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