سرما

What it means

سرما (sarmâ) means “the cold” as a noun: the cold weather, the cold season, the feeling of cold. It is the nominal form of سرد (sard, the adjective “cold”).

Use سرما when cold is the thing itself. Use سرد when cold describes something else (cold tea, cold room).

How to use it

• سرما خوردم (sarmâ khordam) “I caught a cold” (literally I ate cold)
• از سرما می‌لرزم (az sarmâ milarzam) “I am shivering from the cold”
• سرمای زمستان (sarmâ-ye zemestân) “the cold of winter”

Common pairings

• سرماخوردگی (sarmâ-khordegi) “a cold (the illness)”
• سرمازده (sarmâ-zade) “frostbitten, struck by cold”
• سرمای شدید (sarmâ-ye shadid) “severe cold”

Cultural note

سرما خوردن (literally “to eat cold”) is the everyday way Iranians say “to catch a cold.” In Iranian folk medicine, illness is often framed as cold or hot food entering the body, so cold is something you ingest, not just feel.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab