farsi
farsi Lexical Profile
• noun
The modern Persian language, an Indo-Iranian language of the Indo-European family that serves as the official language of Iran and is closely related to Dari in Afghanistan and Tajik in Tajikistan.
"She studied Farsi for two years before traveling to Tehran to conduct her historical research."
• adjective
Of, relating to, or written in the modern Persian language as spoken in Iran.
"The university library recently acquired a rare collection of contemporary Farsi poetry and literature."
Word Nuance & Usage
In formal and academic English contexts, 'Persian' is traditionally preferred as the comprehensive exonym for the language and its historical literature, whereas 'Farsi' (the native endonym) is commonly used in everyday speech to refer specifically to the modern standard variety spoken in Iran.
• Rhymes for farsi
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Borrowed from Persian 'Fārsī', the Arabicized form of Middle Persian 'Pārsīk' (meaning 'Persian'), derived from 'Pārs' (modern Fars province in southwestern Iran) because standard Arabic lacks the '/p/' sound.
Usage Trend
Historical frequency of usage in published text.