دانستن

Persian

Alternative forms

• دونستن (dunestan), دونسن (dunessan) (colloquial Iranian)

Etymology

From Middle Persian YDOYTWN-stn' (dānistan), from Proto-Indo-Iranian *ȷ́ānáHti, from Proto-Indo-European *ǵn̥néh₃ti.

Related to شناختن (šenâxtan, “recognize”), Northern Kurdish zanîn, Baluchi زانگ (zánag), Sanskrit जानाति (jānāti), English know.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Iran)

  (file)

Verb

دانستن • (dânestan) (present stem دان (dân))

1. to know (something)
   • c. 1250, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, دیوان شمس تبریزی [Dīvān-i Shams-i Tabrīzī]:

     خوش باش که هر که راز داند
     داند که خوشی خوشی کشاند

     xwaš bāš ki har ki rāz dānad
     dānad ke xwašī xwašī kašānad

     Be happy, for everyone who knows secret knows that happiness attracts happiness.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

2. (in the simple past) to come to know; to realize

   Synonym: فهمیدن (fahmidan)

   • late 1300s, Xāja Shams-ud-Dīn Moḥammad Ḥāfeẓ-e Shīrāzī, “Shirazi Turk”, in دیوان حافظ [Divān of Ḥāfeẓ]:

     من از آن حسن روزافزون که یوسف داشت دانستم
     که عشق از پرده عصمت برون آرد زلیخا را

     man az ān husn-i rōz-afzōn ki yūsuf dāšt dānestam
     ki išq az parda-yi ismat birūn ārad zulayxā rā

     I have learnt, from that daily-increasing beauty that Joseph had,
     That Love will bring Zoleykha out from behind the curtain of modesty.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

3. to consider; to deem

Usage notes

• In the simple past tense, it means "learned; realized; came to know"; to mean "knew", one must use the imperfect tense with می (mi). This simple past tense use is not very common in colloquial language.
• Similar to many European languages, Persian has two verbs used for knowing something and knowing someone. دانستن (dânestan) is used for having knowledge about places or things; but شناختن (šenâxtan) is used for recognizing and knowing people. Compare German kennen and wissen; French savoir and connaître; Spanish saber and conocer.

Conjugation

Derived terms

References

• Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar (1931–) “دانستن”, in Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute, editors, Dehkhoda Dictionary (in Persian), Tehran: University of Tehran Press
• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “YDOYTWN-stn', Page:24”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press
• Cheung, Johnny (2007) Etymological Dictionary of the Iranian Verb (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 2), Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 467
• خوش باش که هر که راز داند