مزدور

Inherited from Middle Persian [script needed] (myzdwbl /⁠mizdwar⁠/, “hireling, hired laborer”),^[1] from [script needed] (mzd /⁠mizd⁠/, “reward, hire”), whence modern مزد (muzd / mozd).

مزدور • (muzdūr / mozdur) (Tajik spelling муздур)

1. mercenary
2. hired laborer, hireling
   • c. 1011, Abu'l-Qāsim Firdawsī, “The reign of Yazdgird”, in شاهنامه [Book of Kings]‎^[1]:

     نشسته نظاره من از دورشان
     تو گفتی بدم پیش مزدورشان

     nišasta nazāra man az dūrašān
     tu guftī budam pēš muzdūrašān

     I sat, looking at them from afar:
     You would have said I was a hireling before them.

     (Classical Persian romanization)

• → Azerbaijani: muzdur
• → Bengali: মজদুর (mojodur)
• → Hindi: मज़दूर (mazdūr)
• → Urdu: مُزْدُور (muzdūr)

• Hayyim, Sulayman (1934) “مزدور”, in New Persian–English dictionary, Teheran: Librairie-imprimerie Béroukhim
• Dehkhoda, Ali-Akbar (1931–) “مزدور”, in Dehkhoda Dictionary Institute, editors, Dehkhoda Dictionary (in Persian), Tehran: University of Tehran Press

Borrowed from Classical Persian مزدور (muzdūr, “mercenary; labourer”).

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /mʊz.d̪uːɾ/
• (common) IPA^(key): [məz.d̪uːɾ]
• Rhymes: -uːɾ
• Hyphenation: مُز‧دُور

مُزْدُور • (muzdūr) m (Hindi spelling मज़दूर)

1. labourer, worker
2. porter, carrier, coolly

• “مزدور”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “مزدور”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.
• Qureshi, Bashir Ahmad (1971) “مزدور”, in Kitabistan's 20th Century Standard Dictionary‎, Lahore: Kitabistan Pub. Co.