# Persian/Urdu: tashreef تشريف



## quetion

I was looking for the literal meaning and etymology for the word "tashreef"


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## panjabigator

I believe it means "presence" and it comes from Arabic.


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## Alijsh

"honoring", I think. In Persian, we have some idiomatic verbs with it.


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## lcfatima

It comes from sh/r/f which is connected to the meaning of nobleness, like sharaafat and shareef.


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## Illuminatus

Does _musharraf_ have the same root?


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## Alijsh

Illuminatus said:


> Does _musharraf_ have the same root?


Yes. It means "honored".


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## Faylasoof

quetion said:


> I was looking for the literal meaning and etymology for the word "tashreef"



It comes from the root ش \ ر \ ف, (as Fatima says) and it is Arabic (PG) and it means <honouring> (Alijsh). Also means <exalting / your honour etc.>.

To be precise, <تشریف tashreef tashriif> is the verbal noun of < شَرَّفَ sharrafa = to honour>, from the root verb <شَرَفَ sharafa>. 

In Urdu we use it as, for example:  <آپ) تشریف لایے) (aap) tashriif lāiyye> = please do come. 

The Urdu construction is virtually the same as the Persian <tashriif beāiid>. In fact we borrowed it from Farsi - and you can blame the likes of yours truly's ancestors for this.

... and PG, I think you might be thinking of <حَضرَت Hazrat = presence / dignity / eminence / holiness / highness>, also used as an honorific title.


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## panjabigator

> ... and PG, I think you might be thinking of <حَضرَت Hazrat = presence / dignity / eminence / holiness / highness>, also used as an honorific title.



That was it!  Thank you.


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## Alijsh

Faylasoof said:


> In Urdu we use it as, for example:  <آپ) تشریف لایے) (aap) tashriif lāiyye> = please do come.
> 
> The Urdu construction is virtually the same as the Persian <tashriif beāiid>. In fact we borrowed it from Farsi - and you can blame the likes of yours truly's ancestors for this.


Do you have both ?:

taŝrif bordan (تشریف بردن) = polite form of «raftan» (to go, to leave)
taŝrif âvardan (تشریف آوردن) = polite form of «âmadan» (to come)


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## Faylasoof

Alijsh said:


> Do you have both ?: taŝrif bordan (تشریف بردن) = polite form of «raftan» (to go, to leave)
> taŝrif âvardan (تشریف آوردن) = polite form of «âmadan» (to come)


 Yes we do!    

taŝrif bordan تشریف بردن 
   تشریف لے جانا  taŝriif  le jānā

taŝrif âvardan تشریف آوردن
تشریف لانا  taŝriif lānā 
 
So,
<  تشریف لے جایے taŝriif  le jāiyye > = please (do) go! ... etc.


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## Illuminatus

_Tashreef rakhiye_ and _tashreef laaiye_ are very common in India


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## Faylasoof

Illuminatus said:


> _Tashreef rakhiye_ and _tashreef laaiye_ are very common in India



Yep! Both compeletly idiomatic and used with the following difference:

When someone is say at the door and you want him / her to come in you say the second. But if he / she is already in and you want him / her to sit down, you say the first.


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## Illuminatus

Many a stand-up comedian have likened Tashreef with the backside and created jokes!


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## Faylasoof

Yes I know some of those.  But other, more "polite", forms of jokes / sarcasms use expressions like:

 taŝriif _k__ā tokr__ā_ lānā! = to bring one's honourable basket! - in a literal translation, of course. Means that you really do not respect or honour that person.


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## Sheikh_14

Faylasoof said:


> Yep! Both compeletly idiomatic and used with the following difference:
> 
> When someone is say at the door and you want him / her to come in you say the second. But if he / she is already in and you want him / her to sit down, you say the first.



Not necessarily when one is already in the room tashriif lii jiye is commonly used to denote please do sit down hence the usage really depends on the context rather than mechanical rules. On the other hand, aap ke tashriif/ aap ka yahaan tashriif laane ka shukria would be a means to thank someone for coming. Thus here what you have put down becomes entirely relevent. However, even than you can be thanking someone for taking a seat in your humble abode etc. Nevertheless, tashriif rakhna is unambiguously used for taking a seat.


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## marrish

Sheikh_14 said:


> *tashriif lii jiye* is commonly used to denote please do sit down hence the usage really depends on the context rather than mechanical rules.


Never heard about that.


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## Sheikh_14

Used quite commonly- in place of please have a seat.


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## marrish

That's new to me - perhaps it's not so common after all. To offer someone to have a seat the common way with the word _tashriif_ is _*tashriif rakhiye*_. Perhaps I can't understand your notation correctly or I am missing out something, but if not I would advise strongly against it. 

_tashriif_, as Fayalsoof SaaHib stated years ago means "that what is honoured, exalted" thence "your exalted presence, your honour". Maybe it hasn't been explained plainly till day, but it means respectively:

tashriif laanaa: "to bring your exalted presence" = to visit, to come, to come in.
tashriif-aawarii farmaanaa: "to honour with having brought your exalted presence", as above but more ornate.
tashriif le jaanaa: "to take your exalted presence" = to leave.
tashriif rakhnaa: "to keep your exalted presence" = to be seated, to stay.
tashriif farmaanaa: = tashriif laanaa & rakhnaa.
tashriif farmaa honaa: = as above
tashriif arzaanii farmaanaa: = as above.

The latter three are graded in their politeness as I perceive them.

liijiye means "please do take". What? _tashriif_? Doesn't make any sense because tashriif is neither "a seat" in any relevant way... tashriif liijiye is actually equivalent of tashriif le jaa'iye and could only point to a kind request to ask someone to leave.

As a side note, Faylasoof SaaHib was kind to inform all that it can be expanded by words like Tokraa (borii etc.) for sounding contemptuous; it doesn't have to. In some circles and I can risk the statement that it is certainly in Lakhnawi Urdu but not only, I hope Faylasoof SaaHib can correct me on this, it is the preferred form to use while having a verbal fight.


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## Sheikh_14

When someone offers something to eat the most common phrase used is lii jiye, as please do take. It by no means,  implies take it way and go for pete's sake. You are right in that grammatically it may not be pristine, so be it, marhabtayn the Arabic response to Marhaba hello is neither. Yet it is commonly used. Just like with placebo tashriif to most evokes a seat rather than its original meaning call it semantic drift if you will. To the well read tawaif means a courtesan, to the philistine it means a whore. Illumanitus has touched light heartedly upon this in post 13.

That being said from a purely grammatical persoective it is not correct. However, from human conceptions' it is.


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## Qureshpor

Sheikh_14 said:


> Not necessarily when one is already in the room tashriif lii jiye is commonly used to denote please do sit down hence the usage really depends on the context rather than mechanical rules.[..].


I too will have to plead ignorance to this construction. Perhaps you have the opposite in mind....tashriif le jaa'iye.


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