New to ajaban zabAn?

Coining the Phrase “Simorq’anize”

Getting Simorqanized •
by Rezwan on 12/19 at 07:08 AM
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What the heck? ”Simorq-anize?" You can’t make up words like that!

Yes, you can. It’s a portmanteau word. Making them is a natural part of creativity. It’s what Shakespeare did all the time. And it brings a smile to my face. As long as the meaning is clear, mutant words are cool! Language rocks! It’s so flexible!

First of all, the entire thing started with the “Simorq” myth itself. In the folk tales, Simorq was always this one mythic bird. Then it looks like Farideddin came along and said - hey, that’s no single bird, that’s “si” “morq”!

And he made up a whole story about this. (If you know more about the evolution of this story, please comment on it! To me, it appears to be an innovation of Farideddin). If he can make up a story from breaking apart a word, then I can add to that word and turn “simorq-anize” into a mantra. But how would we translate that into Persian?

In English, we took “Simorq” and added “organize”. Since “orq” and “org” sound so similar, we dropped the “org” from organize. Can we do something simple like this in Persian? Why not?

[Note: an English speaker is going to think you are saying: “We need to seem organized.” Which sounds like we have a superficial goal, like we are slackers who want to “look busy”. This is why you really have to pronounce the “Q” sound in “simorq” (see transliteration). On the other hand, if someone listens only on the surface and doesn’t look into the matter or understand the story of Simorq, then the spiritual implications of the word will be lost to them and they will, in fact, only seem organized. So that actually works on some metaphoric level.]

Back to saying “simorq-anize” in Persian: “To organize” is “monazzam kardan.” So we want to link “simorq” to “monazzam.” Both have a “mo” sound, so we’ll axe it from “monazzam” to get “simorq-nazzam.” Then we’ll break up the “q” and “n” consonants with a vowel - and heck, let’s give it the Arabicized “ol” twist thus making the word seem instantly ancient and credible. And so we get: