Word A Day

шавқовар

шавқовар: interesting

Ӯ одами шавқовар ва боақл аст.
He is an interesting and intelligent man.
Дарсҳои иловагии мактаб он қадар шавқовар нестанд ва аксари ҳамсинфонам дар онҳо ширкат намекунанд.
The extra school lessons are not that interesting and most of my classmates don’t participate in them.

Bonus:
The adjective шавқовар is made up of two parts – шавқ: (interest, a noun) and suffix -овар (from the verb овардан – to bring).
There are many adjectives with the suffix -овар. Here are a few examples: хандаовар, шодиовар, шармовар, диловар.

қадимтарин

қадимтарин: oldest

Забони тоҷикӣ яке аз забонҳои қадимтарини Осиёи Миёна мебошад.
Tajik is one of the oldest languages in Central Asia.
Наврӯз яке аз қадимтарин идҳои тоҷикон ба шумор меравад.
Navruz is (counted as) one of the Tajik people’s oldest holidays.

Bonus: 
қадим – old; қадимтар – older; қадимтарин – oldest
Қадим can also mean “ancient”, so қадимтарин is “the most ancient”. But it is also used for something not so old as in this article about the oldest cinema in Dushanbe, which is about 60 years old.

саёҳат

саёҳат: trip, journey

Агар ҳаво нағз шавад, мо ба саёҳат меравем.
If the weather is nice we will go on a trip.
Бачаҳо хурсанд буданд, ки муаллим онҳоро ба саёҳат мебарад.
The children were happy that the teacher would take them on a trip.

Bonus:
The suffix -чӣ can be added to a noun to form a new noun that is a type of person. Саёҳатчӣ is therefore a traveler or tourist.
Adding suffixes is a great way to increase your vocabulary. Check out lots more examples on this pdf: Expand Your Vocabulary – Suffixes.

кошки

кошки: if only

Кошки дирӯз ҳамин хел мешуд.
If only yesterday had been like this.
Кошки ин сухан аз даҳонаш намебаромад!
If only those words hadn’t come out of his mouth!
Кошки медонистам.
I wish I had known.

Bonus: 
Кошки could also be translated as “I wish…” or “O that…”
Кошки can also be a response to something that sounds too good to be true. For example, somebody says that they have heard that there will be no snow this winter. You reply – “Кошки”, “If only”.

кӯҳсор

кӯҳсор: mountains

Дар кӯҳсор ҳайвоноти ваҳшӣ: гург, рӯбоҳ, хирс ва бабрҳо мешаванд.
In the mountains are wild animals: wolves, foxes, bears and tigers.
Мо имрӯз ба сайри кӯҳсор меравем.
Today we are going for a walk in the mountains.

Bonus: 
Adding the suffix -зор, -сор, -истон to a noun forms a noun for a place. Кӯҳ is mountain, so кӯҳсор is “the place of mountains” which could also be translated as “mountainous region”, “highlands”, or simply “mountains”.
Кӯҳистон is a synonym for кӯҳсор. It would be interesting to find out if they have slightly different meanings or if they are completely interchangeable.

ҷустуҷӯ кардан

ҷустуҷӯ кардан: to search

Чаро шумо зиндаро дар миёни мурдагон ҷустуҷӯ мекунед?
Why do you search for the living among the dead.

Bonus: 
Tajik websites like Asia-Plus use the word ҷустуҷӯ in the search box to search their site.
Another common usage of the word ҷустуҷӯ is in оперативӣ – ҷустуҷӯӣ, or search operation, as in a search that might be conducted by the Department of Customs.

ситора

ситора: star

Осмон пур аз ситора аст.
The sky is full of stars.
Офтоб яке аз миллиардҳо ситораҳое, ки галактикаи Роҳи Каҳкашонро ташкил медиҳад.
The sun is one of the billions of stars that make up the Milky Way galaxy.

Bonus: 
The word “ситора” can also be used for someone famous, as in a music star or a film star.
The Tajik word for “astronomer” is “ситорашинос”, or one who knows the stars. Likewise, “astronomy” is “ситорашиносӣ”, or knowing the stars.

сафед

сафед: white

Ранги сафед аз бисёр рангҳо иборат аст – зард, норинчӣ, сурх, сабз, кабуд ва гулобӣ.
White is composed of many colours – yellow, orange, red, green, blue and purple.
Роҳи сафед!
Safe journey! (Literally – white road)

Bonus: 
Do you know what тиллои сафед is? You can use google image search to find out.
There is a cool way to say “very white” in Tajik – сап-сафед. There are also cool ways to say “very blue”, “very red” etc.
If you need practice with colours you can learn them here: Memrise – Tajik Colours

иборат

иборат: consists

Оилаи мо аз панҷ нафар иборат аст.
Our family consists of five people.
Як сол иборат аз дувоздаҳ моҳ аст.
One year consists of twelve months.

Bonus:
This is a good example of a word that is hard to translate. Sometimes it translates better as “contains” or “is made up of”. To get a good handle of this word you should create more sentences using the sample sentences as guides. Don’t try to translate the sentences into English; just try to get the feel for how to use the word in Tajik. Here is another example:
Табиатшиносӣ аз ду калима (“табиат” ва “шинос”) иборат аст.