What it means
تشریح کردن (tashrih-kardan) means to elaborate, to describe in detail, to lay something out point by point. It sits a register above توضیح دادن (towzih-dadan, to explain). Where towzih-dadan is the everyday word for explaining anything to anyone, tashrih-kardan implies serious, structured exposition: a minister tashrih-konad a policy at a press conference, a doctor tashrih-konad a diagnosis, an analyst tashrih-konad the implications of a sanctions package.
The noun تشریح (tashrih) also carries a separate technical sense: anatomical dissection, the medical practice of cutting open a body to examine its structure. That literal meaning bleeds into the figurative one. To tashrih-kardan an idea is to dissect it, to open it up and show the parts.
Compound verb structure
Like most Persian compound verbs in the formal register, tashrih-kardan combines an Arabic-origin noun with the Persian light verb کردن (kardan, to do, to make). The noun تشریح (tashrih) carries the meaning; کردن is the verbal carrier that takes person, tense, and mood. You conjugate only the کردن half: تشریح میکنم (tashrih mikonam, I elaborate), تشریح کرد (tashrih kard, he elaborated), تشریح خواهد کرد (tashrih khahad kard, he will elaborate). The noun تشریح stays fixed. The pattern is identical to thousands of other Persian compound verbs (توضیح دادن towzih-dadan, تحلیل کردن tahlil-kardan, اشاره کردن eshare-kardan) and is the dominant verb-formation engine of formal Persian.
How to use it
vazir-e khareje barname-ye doulat-ro dar konferans-e khabari tashrih kard.
The foreign minister elaborated on the government’s program at the press conference.
وزیر خارجه برنامه دولت رو در کنفرانس خبری تشریح کرد.
lotfan tashrih konid manzuretun chiye.
Please elaborate on what you mean.
لطفاً تشریح کنید منظورتون چیه.
nemikhad har joz’iyat-ro tashrih koni, kolliyat kafiye.
You don’t need to elaborate every detail, the overall picture is enough.
نمیخواد هر جزئیات رو تشریح کنی، کلیات کافیه.
Where it comes from
Tashrih is Arabic-origin, the form II verbal noun of شرح (sharh, to expound, comment on, explain at length) on the root sh-r-h (ش ر ح). The form II مَفعَل pattern intensifies and makes transitive: where sharh is to explain, tashrih is to explain thoroughly, to dissect. The same root gives Persian شرح (sharh, commentary, explanation), used heavily in classical Persian scholarship for line-by-line commentaries on the Quran and on poetry. The anatomical sense (dissection) came into Persian medical vocabulary through the Arab medical tradition.
In our voice
Reach for tashrih-kardan in writing and in formal speech. In casual conversation, توضیح دادن is the right word for explaining anything. Using tashrih-kardan over coffee with a friend will sound oddly bureaucratic. Using towzih-dadan in a parliamentary report will sound oddly thin.
References
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