What it means
شیر آب آشپزخانه (shir-âb-e âshpazkhâne) refers to the kitchen tap or kitchen faucet, the fixture mounted at the sink that controls the flow of water. The phrase is built from three native Persian elements: شیر (shir, meaning a valve or spout, originally named after the lion-head shape of early water spouts), آب (âb, water), and آشپزخانه (âshpazkhâne, kitchen). In everyday speech, Iranians almost always shorten this to just شیر (shir) or شیر آب (shir-âb), dropping آشپزخانه unless they need to specify the kitchen tap versus a bathroom or garden tap. A close related term is شیر حمام (shir-e hammâm), the bathroom tap, used for contrast.
How to use it
- شیر آب آشپزخانه چکه میکنه. (Shir-âb-e âshpazkhâne chake mi-kone.) “The kitchen tap is dripping.”
- شیر آب رو ببند، آب هدر میره. (Shir-âb ro beband, âb hadar mi-re.) “Turn off the tap, water is being wasted.”
- شیر آب گرم کار نمیکنه. (Shir-âb-e garm kâr nemi-kone.) “The hot-water tap is not working.”
- میتونی ظرفا رو زیر شیر آب آبکشی کنی؟ (Mi-tuni zarf-â ro zir-e shir-âb âb-keshi koni?) “Can you rinse the dishes under the tap?”
Cultural note
The word شیر for a tap or valve comes from the fact that the first taps in Iran featured lion-head designs, with water flowing from the animal’s open mouth. This connection between lion imagery and flowing water has deep roots in Iranian art, visible in stone lion fountains found at historical sites across the country. In modern Iranian kitchens, the two-handled mixer tap, known as شیر مخلوط (shir-e makhlut), has largely replaced the older separate hot and cold taps, but the word شیر remains the standard term across all registers of speech.