This site uses cookies. Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site, while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
Cookie settings
کنکور
اگر از انجا گذشتیم

Glossary entry

Persian (Farsi) term or phrase:

Transliterated from Russian: "Nagzi"

English translation:

نغزی/naghzi

Added to glossary by Ali Beikian
Oct 29, 2009 23:26
14 yrs ago
Persian (Farsi) term

Transliterated from Russian: "Nagzi"

Persian (Farsi) to English Art/Literary General / Conversation / Greetings / Letters Greeting to a child
This question is repeated from the "Russian - English" area, at a moderator's suggestion, because we weren't sure. In a memoir set in Tashkent in the 1960s, a grandfather who is described as "an Iranian Jew" in a Tajik-speaking family greets his two-year-old grandson, "[Name of child], nagzi-i?" - but the word is "nagzi", and he's described as stretching out the last syllable to be funny. If I understand correctly what I read in a Tajik-English glossary, the root "nagz" means "good". What is he saying? Something like - "Are you being a good bo-y-y?" - ? Sorry for asking here, but the Tajik-English department seems to have no activity, and only participants who already said in the Russian section that they don't know. Thank you for helping, if anybody can.
Proposed translations (English)
5 +4 نغزی/naghzi
4 Oh, sweetie; oh, honey; oh, lovely
Change log

Oct 30, 2009 05:48: Mohammad Reza Razaghi changed "Level" from "Non-PRO" to "PRO"

Oct 31, 2009 09:08: Ali Beikian Created KOG entry

Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

PRO (3): Ryan Emami, Ali Beikian, Mohammad Reza Razaghi

When entering new questions, KudoZ askers are given an opportunity* to classify the difficulty of their questions as 'easy' or 'pro'. If you feel a question marked 'easy' should actually be marked 'pro', and if you have earned more than 20 KudoZ points, you can click the "Vote PRO" button to recommend that change.

How to tell the difference between "easy" and "pro" questions:

An easy question is one that any bilingual person would be able to answer correctly. (Or in the case of monolingual questions, an easy question is one that any native speaker of the language would be able to answer correctly.)

A pro question is anything else... in other words, any question that requires knowledge or skills that are specialized (even slightly).

Another way to think of the difficulty levels is this: an easy question is one that deals with everyday conversation. A pro question is anything else.

When deciding between easy and pro, err on the side of pro. Most questions will be pro.

* Note: non-member askers are not given the option of entering 'pro' questions; the only way for their questions to be classified as 'pro' is for a ProZ.com member or members to re-classify it.

Proposed translations

+4
2 hrs
Selected

نغزی/naghzi

You are right. It is "نغزی/naghzi".
It can be broken down into "naghz/نغز" + "i/ی"
Here is the definition of "naghz/نغز" from Dehkhoda Persian-to-Persian dctionary:
خوب . نيک . نيکو. چيزي نيکو و زيبا و بديع و عجب از نيکوئي . هر چيز عجيب از نيکوئي . هر چيزي عجيب و بديع که ديدنش خوش آيد.
http://dic.mjsoft.ir/Default.aspx?Lang=FaToEn&Word=%u0646%u0...

It means: good, nice, exotically beautiful, inviting to eyes, pleasant too look at

Now, "نغزی/naghzi" seems to be a sweet and affectionate form of addressing his grandson.

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2 hrs (2009-10-30 01:54:07 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

By the way, we do have this word in Persian, and it is commonly used in literary texts.
Note from asker:
Oh, thank you so much! And thanks to Edward, too. I might write it that way, "are you being good?" or maybe use "are you being a good boy-y-y?" - because of the final syllable similarity.
Peer comment(s):
agree Edward Plaisance Jr : Yes, I have a Tajik dictionary and it means "good". The "i" suffix is for the "familiar you", so he is asking "are you being good?"
52 mins
Thank you, Sir.
agree Farzad Akmali : sure! we have the same in Farsi: نغز و دلکش
4 hrs
Thank you, Sir.
agree Habib Shariati
7 hrs
Thank you, Sir.
agree Hossein Abbasi Mohaghegh
19 hrs
Thank you, Sir.
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thank you all very much! Sorry for calling it non-PRO; I figured it was something obvious for Persian or Tajik speakers, though not to me as a translator from Russian. Please feel free to tell your moderators to switch it to "PRO" (I don't know how), and that the asker endorses that idea."
8 mins

Oh, sweetie; oh, honey; oh, lovely

I don't think you have written the right word here. If it is a Persian word, we have an expression نازی (pronounced naazi) that is said to children as a form of sweet talking, encouragement, etc. Here the speaker could "stretch out the last syllable" by saying something like "naayzi," I guess. Naaz (ناز) in persian means delicate, sweet, lovely, etc.
Note from asker:
Thank you. I understand that it is likely not the right word in Persian, because it's Tajik, not Persian. But, you are helping me get closer to understanding.
Something went wrong...
Close search
Term search
  • All of ProZ.com
  • Term search
  • Jobs
  • Forums
  • Multiple search