کف

کَم (kəm) (definite accusative کَمی, plural کَملَر)

1. Arabic spelling of kəm (“wooden border of a sieve”)

From Middle Persian [Book Pahlavi needed] (kp /⁠kaf⁠/, “foam, slime”); compare Proto-Indo-Iranian *kapʰas (“phlegm, mucus”). Cognate with Khotanese khavä (“foam”), etc.

کف • (kaf) (plural کف‌ها (kaf-hâ))

1. foam
   • c. 1260s, Jalāl ad-Dīn Mohammad Rūmī, translated by Reynold A. Nicholson, مثنوی معنوی [Masnavi-ye-Ma'navi], volume I, verse 2676:

     حلم ایشان کف بحر حلم ماست / کف رود آید ولی دریا به جاست

     hilm-êšân kaf-i-bahr-i-hilm-i-mâ / kaf rawad âyad wali dariyâ ba jâ-st

     Their clemency is (but) the foam of the sea of My clemency: the foam comes and goes, but the sea is (always) there.

2. froth

• کف کردن (kaf kardan)

• → Armenian: քափ (kʻapʻ)
• → Azerbaijani: kəf
• → Georgian: ქაფი (kapi)

• MacKenzie, D. N. (1971) “kaf”, in A concise Pahlavi dictionary, London, New York, Toronto: Oxford University Press, page 48

From Arabic كَفّ (kaff).

کف • (kaf) (plural کف‌ها (kaf-hâ))

1. palm
2. applause
3. floor

• کف زدن (kaf zadan)

• → Khalaj: kəf