What it means
شکستگی (shekastegi) is the noun form of شکستن (shekastan), the pure Persian verb meaning “to break.” In everyday medical and first-aid speech it refers to a fracture, a broken bone, or any crack in a hard material. A doctor says شکستگی, a worried parent at the emergency room says شکستگی, and a construction worker pointing at a cracked wall says the same word. The suffix -egi turns the past stem شکست into an abstract noun meaning “the state of being broken.” A close synonym in clinical writing is فراکتور (farāktor), borrowed from French/English, but شکستگی is the natural spoken choice across all registers.
How to use it
- دستم شکستگی داره. (Dastam shekastegi dāre.) “My arm has a fracture.”
- دکتر گفت شکستگی کامله. (Doktor goft shekastegi kāmel-e.) “The doctor said it is a complete fracture.”
- بعد از شکستگی باید گچ بذاری. (Ba’d az shekastegi bāyad gach bezāri.) “After a fracture you have to put on a cast.”
- این شکستگی به جراحی نیاز داره؟ (In shekastegi be jarāhi niāz dāre?) “Does this fracture need surgery?”
Cultural note
In Iran, a broken bone is often treated with both modern medicine and traditional remedies. Many families still apply روغن بنبست (herbal bone-setting oil) or wrap the limb in egg white before going to the hospital. Bone setters known as استخوانبند (ostakhvān-band) operated in bazaars and villages for generations, and some still practice alongside licensed orthopedic surgeons in smaller cities. The word شکستگی also appears in poetry and everyday metaphor: شکستگی دل (shekastegi-ye del) means heartbreak, carrying the same sense of something once whole now split.