Farsi

See also: farsi, farsí, and fársí

English

Alternative forms

• Parsee
• Parsi

Etymology

Apparently first used widely in English in the late 1960s or early 1970s. From Persian فارسی (fârsi), meaning "relating to Fars", the Arabicized form of the name of the province of Pars (Early Classical Persian پارس (pārs)) which was adopted in Iran following the Arab conquest of Persia in the 7th century. The sense for the hijra argot is from Hindi फ़ारसी (fārsī) from the same word.

Pronunciation

• enPR: färʹsē, IPA^(key): /ˈfɑː(ɹ)si/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)si

Noun

Farsi (uncountable)

1. (proscribed) The Persian language.
   • 1820, William Erskine, “On the sacred books and religion of the Parsis”, in Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, volume II, page 315:

     That the Farsi or Persian is not a language derived from the Pehlevi, but a collateral and independent tongue, seems to be sufficiently certain.

   • 1991, Richard Felix Staar, Foreign Policies of the Soviet Union, page 91:

     In July 1984, Radio Iran Toilers began broadcasting in Farsi from Afghanistan; by the end of 1988 it was transmitting twenty-one hours a week.

   • 1999, Maria O'Shea, Culture shock! Iran, page 75:

     The method of writing Farsi is logical, although reading can be trickier, as one has to guess at the unwritten consonants of unfamiliar words.

   • 2001, Dan Baumann, Imprisoned in Iran: Love's Victory Over Fear, page 20:

     We chatted away in Farsi.

   • 2009, Vit Bubenik, "The rise and development of the possessive construction in Middle Iranian with parallels in Albanian", page 97 in Grammatical Change in Indo-European Languages, Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 305

     For instance, in Farsi pošt means 'back' (noun) as in pošt=am dard mikonad 'my back hurts' […]

2. An argot of hijras, or catamites, in North India and Pakistan.

Usage notes

• Popular use of the term "Farsi" in English is relatively recent.
• Iran's Academy of Persian Language and Literature states that "Farsi" is not an appropriate term to use for the Persian language in English. Some groups debate over the use of "Farsi" at all as an English word.
• ISO formerly called the language "Western Farsi", but now designates it as "Iranian Persian". Ethnologue lists the language as "Iranian Persian", but also gives the terms "West Persian", "Western Farsi" and "New Persian".

Synonyms

• (language): Persian

Translations

Persian language — see Persian

See also

• Persia
• Wikipedia article on the Persian language

Adjective

Farsi (comparative more Farsi, superlative most Farsi)

1. (proscribed) Persian

Further reading

• Farsi English Dictionary
• Persian-English Dictionary
• Ethnologue entry for Farsi, pes ⁠
• Hall, Kira (2011) “Queer but Language: A Sociolinguistic Study of Farsi”, in International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, volume 1, number 10
• Avtans, Abhishek (2018 September 9) “A secret language of homosexuals of Delhi”, in Linguistica Indica‎^[5]
• Roy, Himadri (2013 May 20) “Farsi: A Lost Language of Gay Delhi”, in Gaylaxy

Anagrams

• Frias, RIFAs, fairs, fiars, rafsi

Indonesian

Noun

Farsi

1. Persia

Malay

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [fa(r).si]
• Rhymes: -si, -i
• Hyphenation: Far‧si

Proper noun

Farsi

1. Obsolete form of Parsi.