برف

See also: برق and ترف

Ottoman Turkish

Etymology

Borrowed from Persian برف (barf).

Noun

برف • (berf)

1. snow, the frozen state of water that falls as precipitation

   Synonyms: ثلج (selc), قار (kar)

Derived terms

• برفاب (berfab, “melted snow”)
• برفدار (berfdar, “snowy”)
• برفدان (berfdan, “icehouse”)

Descendants

• Turkish: berf

Further reading

• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “berf”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 554
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “برف”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[1] (in French), Constantinople: Mihran, page 261
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Nix”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎^[2], Vienna, column 1141
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “برف”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎^[3], Vienna, column 775
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “budak”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “برف”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[4], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 356

Persian

Etymology

From Middle Persian 𐭥𐭯𐭫 (ʿpl /⁠wafr⁠/), from Proto-Iranian *wafrah (“snow”). Compare Baluchi برپ (barp), Central Kurdish بەفر (befr), Northern Kurdish berf, Pashto واوره (wāwra), Wakhi ورف (warf).

Pronunciation

• (Classical Persian) IPA^(key): [baɾf]

 

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [bäɾf]

• (Dari, formal) IPA^(key): [bäɾf]
  • (Kabuli) IPA^(key): [bäɾf]
  • (Hazaragi) IPA^(key): [bäɾf]

• (Iran, formal) IPA^(key): [bæɹf]

• (Tajik, formal) IPA^(key): [bäɾf]

Readings
Classical reading?	barf
Dari reading?	barf
Iranian reading?	barf
Tajik reading?	barf

• Audio (Iran):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -arf

Noun

Dari	برف
Iranian Persian
Tajik	барф

برف • (barf)

1. snow

Related terms

• برفی (barfi)
• برف آمدن (barf âmadan)
• برف باریدن (barf bâridan)
• برف‌روب (barf-rub)
• آدم برفی (âdam-barfi)

Descendants

• → Bengali: বরফ (boroph)
• → Bhojpuri: बरफ (baraph)
• → Gujarati: બરફ (baraph)
• → Hindustani:

  Hindi: बर्फ़ (barf)

  Urdu: برف (barf)

• → Marathi: बर्फ (barpha)
• → Nepali: बरफ (baraph)
• → Omani Arabic: برف (barf)
  • → Swahili: barafu
    • → Luganda: bbalaafu
• → Ottoman Turkish: برف (berf)
• → Punjabi: ਬਰਫ਼ / برف (barf)
• → Sindhi: بَرْفَ (barfa)
• → Somali: baraf
• → Varli: બરફ

Punjabi

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian بَرْف (barf).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Punjabi) IPA^(key): /bə.ɾəf/, [bɐ˦.ɾɐfᵊ]

Noun

بَرَف • (baraf) f (Gurmukhi spelling ਬਰਫ਼)

1. snow
2. ice

Declension

Declension of برف

	singular	plural
direct	بَرَف (baraf)	بَرَفاں (barafāṉ)
oblique	بَرَف (baraf)	بَرَفاں (barafāṉ)
vocative	بَرَفے (barafe)	بَرَفو (barafo)
ablative	بَرَفوں (barafoṉ)	بَرَفاں (barafāṉ)
locative	بَرَفی (barafī)	بَرَفِیں (barafīṉ)
instrumental	بَرَفِیں (barafīṉ)	بَرَفے (barafe)

Further reading

• Iqbal, Salah ud-Din (2002) “برف”, in vaḍḍī panjābī lughat‎ (in Punjabi), Lahore: ʻAzīz Pablisharz
• “ਬਰਫ਼”, in Punjabi-English Dictionary, Patiala: Punjabi University, 2025

Sindhi

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian بَرْف (barf).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [bərfə]

Noun

بَرفَ • (barfa) f (Devanagari बर्फ़)

1. snow
2. ice

References

• Khānu, Balocu (1960–1988) “بَرفَ”, in Jāmiʻ Sindhī lughāta (in Sindhi), Hyderabad, Sindh: Sindhī Adabī Borḍ
• Parmanand, Mewaram (1910) “بَرْفَ”, in Sindhi-English Dictionary, Hyderabad, Sindh: The Sind Juvenile Co-operative Society

Southwestern Fars

Noun

برف (barf)

1. (Masarm, Deh Sarv) snow

Urdu

بَرْف (barf, “snow”) laying beneath trees in a valley in Gilgit-Baltistan

Etymology

Borrowed from Classical Persian بَرْف (barf).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /bəɾf/
• (Punjabic Urdu) IPA^(key): [bə.ɾəf]
• Rhymes: -əɾf

Noun

بَرْف • (barf) f (Hindi spelling बर्फ़)

1. ice
2. snow
3. (figurative) the cold, frigid
4. (figurative) white, shining

Declension

Declension of برف

	singular	plural
direct	بَرْف (barf)	بَرْفیں (barfẽ)
oblique	بَرْف (barf)	بَرْفوں (barfõ)
vocative	بَرْف (barf)	بَرْفو (barfo)

Derived terms

• بَرْف باری (barf bārī)
• بَرْف بَرَسْنا (barf barasnā)
• بَرْف پوش (barf poś)
• بَرْف پَرْورْدَہ (barf parvrda)
• بَرْف پَڑْنا (barf paṛnā)
• بَرْف پِینا (barf pīnā)
• بَرْفاب (barfāb)
• بَرْفانی (barfānī)
• بَرْفی (barfī)

Further reading

• S. W. Fallon (1879) “برف”, in A New Hindustani-English Dictionary, Banaras, London: Trubner and Co., page 247
• Platts, John T. (1884) “برف”, in A dictionary of Urdu, classical Hindi, and English, London: W. H. Allen & Co., page 147
• Qureshi, Bashir Ahmad (1971) “برف”, in Kitabistan's 20th Century Standard Dictionary‎, Lahore: Kitabistan Pub. Co., page 109
• “برف”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.
• John Shakespear (1834) “برف”, in A dictionary, Hindustani and English: with a copious index, fitting the work to serve, also, as a dictionary of English and Hindustani, 3^rd edition, London: J.L. Cox and Son, →OCLC, page 243
• “برف”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.