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 (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 (in French), volume 1, Paris: Maisonneuve et C^ie, page 89
• Lane, Edward William (1863), “بحران”, in Arabic-English Lexicon, London: Williams & Norgate, page 157
• Wehr, Hans; Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985), “بحران”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 67

From Arabic بُحْران‎ (buḥrān, “crisis”).

• (Classical Persian): IPA^(key): /buhɾɑːn/

• (Dari): IPA^(key): /bʊhɾɒːn/

• (Iranian Persian): IPA^(key): /bohɾɒːn/
• (Tajik): IPA^(key): /bɵːhɾɔːn/
• Rhymes: -ân

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 Persian بحران‎ (bohrân), from Arabic بُحْرَان‎ (buḥrān).

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

بُحْران • (bohrān) m (Hindi spelling बोहरान)

1. crisis
2. delirium

• “بحران”, in اُردُو لُغَت (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “بحران”, in Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English] (in English), Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2023.