نامه

From Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (MGLTA) / [Book Pahlavi needed] (nʾmk' /⁠nāmag⁠/, “book, letter, any written text”), equivalent to nām (“name”) (itself from Proto-Iranian *Hnā́ma (“name”))^[1] + -ak (derivative suffix), originally a "name-list" or catalogue of products made for economic or bureaucratic purposes, this being the most common use of writing in early Iranian languages.^[2] By surface analysis, نام (nām / nâm, “name”) +‎ ـه (-a / -e), but rarely analyzed or understood as such. Compare Old Armenian նամակ (namak, “letter, writing”), an Iranian borrowing.

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نامه • (nāma / nâme) (plural نامه‌ها)

1. letter (written or printed communication)
2. (archaic, or in compounds) book; anything written

   Synonym: کتاب (kitāb / ketâb)

   • 1197, Niẓāmī Ganjavī, هفت پیکر [Haft Paykar]‎^[1]:

     باز جستم ز نامه‌های نهان
     که پراکنده بود گرد جهان
     زان سخن‌ها که تازی‌ست و دری
     در سواد بخاری و طبری

     bāz justam zi nāma-hā-yi nahān
     ki parākanda būd gird-i jahān
     z-ān suxan-hā ki tāzī-st u darī
     dar sawād-i buxārī u tabarī

     I sought again from hidden books
     Which were scattered all around the world;
     From the words which are Persian and Arabic
     In the works of Bukhārī and Ṭabarī.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “nāmag”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 57
• Ačaṙean, Hračʻeay (1977) “նամակ”, in Hayerēn armatakan baṙaran [Armenian Etymological Dictionary] (in Armenian), 2nd edition, a reprint of the original 1926–1935 seven-volume edition, volume III, Yerevan: University Press, page 425b
• “nmq”, in The Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon Project, Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1986–