What it means
یقه (yaqeh) is the collar of a garment: the band of fabric that runs around the neckline of a shirt, jacket, or coat. The word comes from Turkic, where یاقا (yâqâ) means the same thing, and it entered Persian during the long period of Turkic-Persian linguistic contact. A closely related term learners encounter is یقهدار (yaqeh-dâr), meaning collared, used to describe a style of shirt or dress. In very formal or tailoring contexts, you may also hear گریبان (garibân), an older Persian word for collar or neckline, though یقه is by far the more common word in modern spoken Persian.
How to use it
- یقهی پیرهنت کثیف شده. (yaqeh-ye pirâhanat kasif shodeh.) “The collar of your shirt has gotten dirty.”
- این کت یقهی بلندی داره. (in kot yaqeh-ye bolandi dâre.) “This jacket has a tall collar.”
- یقه رو صاف کن قبل از اینکه بری. (yaqeh ro sâf kon qabl az inke beri.) “Straighten your collar before you go.”
- اون پیرهن یقه آخوندی میپوشه. (un pirâhan yaqeh âkhundi mi-pushe.) “He wears that clerical-collar shirt.”
Cultural note
In Iran, the collar of a shirt carries social signal value: a stiff, properly buttoned یقه on a man signals formality and respect, while an open collar reads as casual or, in some religious-conservative contexts, as insufficiently modest. The expression یقه کسی رو گرفتن (yaqeh-ye kasi ro gereftan), literally “to grab someone’s collar,” means to confront or hold someone accountable, a phrase used in everyday speech and in political commentary alike. The phrase reflects how closely the garment is tied to concepts of personal responsibility and confrontation in Persian idiom.