بحران

Probably from Aramaic בחרנא (bəḥrānā, “test, turning point of disease progression, crisis”), from בְּחַר (bəḥar, “judging, testing”); compare Hebrew בָּחַר (bāḥar, “to choose, appoint”). Perhaps eventually a calque of Ancient Greek κρίσις (krísis). The Arabic lexicographers identified the word as foreign and considered it of Greek origin.

Lane instead theorised it to be from archaic البَاحُور (al-bāḥūr, “the moon”, literally “expanding, widening; being at the full extent, the furthest extremities”), from the notion of a sudden change of health being linked to the phase of the moon. Compare for this Ancient Greek σεληνιάζομαι (selēniázomai, “epilepsy; sudden drastic symptoms”, literally “moonstruck”), Latin lunaticus, and English lunacy.

• IPA^(key): /buħ.raːn/

بُحْرَان • (buḥrān) m (plural بَحَارِين (baḥārīn))

1. (now rare) crisis, panic

   Synonym: أَزْمَة (ʔazma)

2. (medicine) crisis

• → Azerbaijani: böhran
• → Classical Persian: بحران (buḥrān)
  • → Hindustani:

    Hindi: बोहरान (bohrān)

    Urdu: بُحْرَان (bohrān)

• → Middle Armenian: բուհրան (buhran), բուրհան (burhan), բուհրայն (buhrayn), պուրհան (purhan), պուհրան (puhran), պահրան (pahran), պոհրան (pohran), պոխրան (poxran)
• → Ottoman Turkish: بحران (buhran)
  • Turkish: buhran

بحران • (baḥrān)

1. dual of بَحْر (baḥr)

• Freytag, Georg (1830) “بحران”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum‎^[1] (in Latin), volume 1, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 88
• Kazimirski, Albin de Biberstein (1860) “بحران”, in Dictionnaire arabe-français contenant toutes les racines de la langue arabe, leurs dérivés, tant dans l’idiome vulgaire que dans l’idiome littéral, ainsi que les dialectes d’Alger et de Maroc‎^[2] (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 89
• Lane, Edward William (1863-1893) “بحران”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, page 157.
• Wehr, Hans with Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985) “بحران”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart‎^[3] (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 67

Borrowed from Arabic بُحْرَان (buḥrān, “crisis”).

• Rhymes: -ɑːn

بحران • (bohrân)

1. crisis

   بحران اقتصادی ― bohrân-e eqtesâdi ― financial crisis

   بحران بدهی ― bohrân-e bedehi ― debt crisis

   بحران بین‌المللی ― bohrân-e beyn-olmelali ― international crisis

   بحران سیاسی ― bohrân-e siyâsi ― political crisis

• → Hindustani:

  Hindi: बोहरान (bohrān)

  Urdu: بُحْرَان (bohrān)

Borrowed from Classical Persian بحران (buhrān), from Arabic بُحْرَان (buḥrān).

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /boːɦ.ɾɑːn/

بُحْران • (bohrān) m (Hindi spelling बोहरान)

1. crisis
2. delirium

• “بحران”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “بحران”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.