مردم

مردم • (mardúm) m

1. people, the world, mankind, humanity

From Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (mltwm' /⁠mardōm⁠/, “mankind, people”), from Proto-Iranian *mártyah (“man”) + *táwxma (“family, seed”). Equivalent to Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (mlt' /⁠mard⁠/, “man”, modern مرد‎ (mard)) + Middle Persian 𐫤𐫇𐫍𐫖‎ (twhm /⁠tōhm⁠/, “family, seed”, modern تخم‎ (toxm)): "the seed of man". Cognate to Sogdian [script needed] (mrtxm’y /⁠martoxmē, martəxmē⁠/, “people, man”).

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مَرْدُم • (mardom) (plural مردمان‎ (mardomân))

1. people (group of humans)

   ‏مردم کشور‎ ― mardom-e kešvar ― the people of the country

2. people (nation)

   ‏مردمان ترک‎ ― mardomân-e tork ― Turkic peoples

3. (archaic) human

   Synonyms: آدم‎ (âdam), انسان‎ (ensân)

   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی‎ [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 360:

     ‏دور دور عیسی است ای مردمان
     بشنوید اسرار کیش او به جان‌‌‎

     dawr dawr-i īsā ast ay mardumān
     bešnawīd asrār-i kēš-i ō dar jān

     The epoch is the epoch of Jesus. O men, hearken with your souls unto the mysteries of his religion!

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

4. (literary) pupil (of the eye)

   Synonym: (more common) مردمک‎ (mardomak)

• Identical to English people, مردم has a plural sense on its own. The plural مردمان is used in the sense of "people" as "nation", or for the archaic sense of "one human"; in this latter case مردمان and مردم are identical in meaning.
• مردم usually takes the third-person plural form of the verb.

1. Kazzazi, Mir Jalaleddin, Nāme-ye Bāstān (The Ancient Book): The Interpretation of Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, Vol. I, ed. 2, 2013.
2. Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar (1931–), “مردم”, in Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute, editors, Dehkhoda Dictionary (in Persian), Tehran: University of Tehran Press

• Edelʹman, D. I. (2015) Etimologičeskij slovarʹ iranskix jazykov [Etymological Dictionary of Iranian Languages] (in Russian), volume 5, Moscow: Vostochnaya Literatura, page 214