نگون

Persian

Etymology

From Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (nkwn' /⁠nigūn⁠/). Akin to Old Armenian նկուն (nkun), an Iranian borrowing.

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [ni.ɡuːn]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [nɪ.ɡuːn]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [nɪ.ɡuːn]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [nɪ.ɡuːn]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [nu.ɡun]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [ne.ɡuːn]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [ni.ɡun]

Readings
Classical reading?	nigūn
Dari reading?	nigūn
Iranian reading?	negun
Tajik reading?	nigun

Dari	نگون
Iranian Persian
Tajik	нигун

Adjective

نگون • (negun)

1. turned, inverted, hanging down
   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume III, verse 1145:

     عقل جزوی گاه چیره گه نگون
     عقل کلی آمن از ریب المنون

     'aql-i juzwī gāh čīra gah nigūn
     'aql-i kulī āmin az rayb al-manūn

     The particular intellect is sometimes dominant, sometimes overthrown;
     the Universal Intellect is secure from the mischances of Time.

2. upside down

Further reading

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 59
• Steingass, Francis Joseph (1892) “نگون”, in A Comprehensive Persian–English dictionary, London: Routledge & K. Paul