Persian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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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

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Readings
Classical reading? dānistan
Dari reading? dānistan
Iranian reading? dânestan
Tajik reading? donistan
  • Audio (Iran):(file)

Verb

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Dari دانستن
Iranian Persian
Tajik донистан

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

  1. to know (something)
  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

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  • 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

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Derived terms

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References

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