غیبت

Persian

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic غَيْبَة (ḡayba, “absence”)

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [ɣaj.ˈbat]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [ɣäj.bǽt̪]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [ɣäj.bǽt̪]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [ɣäj.bǽt̪]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [ɣäj.bǽt̪]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [qej.bǽt̪]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [ʁäj.bǽt̪]

Readings
Classical reading?	ğaybat
Dari reading?	ğaybat
Iranian reading?	ğeybat
Tajik reading?	ġaybat

Noun

Dari	غیبت
Iranian Persian
Tajik	ғайбат

غیبت • (ğeybat)

1. absence
   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 3639:

     پس به غیبت نیم ذره‌‌ی حفظ کار
     به که اندر حاضری ز آن صد هزار

     pas ba ğaybat nīm-i-zarra-i-hafiz kār
     ba ki andar hāzirī za ān sad hazāran

     Therefore half an atom of regard to one's duty in absence
     is better than a hundred thousand fold observance thereof in presence.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

2. backbiting, slander
   • mid-11th century, Abū ʿAlī ʿUsmanī, برگردان رسالهٔ قشیریه [Translation of the Qushayriyyan Epistle]:

     یاران را گفتی از دروغ و خیانت و غیبت دور باشید و جز این آنچه خواهید کنید.

     yārān rā guftē az durōğ u xiyānat u ğaybat dūr bāšēd u juz īn ānči xwāhēd kunēd.

     He would tell his friends, "Refrain from lies, betrayal, and slander, and besides these, do what you want."

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

References

• Hayyim, Sulayman (1934) “غیبت”, in New Persian–English dictionary, Teheran: Librairie-imprimerie Béroukhim