Perih

Perih is a word used in Indonesian and Malay to describe pain, soreness, or a stinging sensation. It can refer to physical pain, such as a wound or burn, as well as to emotional discomfort, often expressed as distress or hurt in a non-literal sense.

In everyday usage, perih functions as an adjective. For example, a wound may be described as perih, and a person might say that a heartache feels perih, as in perih di hati. The expression is common in spoken language, literature, and media, where it conveys both tangible and intangible forms of discomfort.

Etymology and related terms are tied to the native vocabularies of Indonesian and Malay. Perih is part of the core lexicon and frequently appears alongside related words that express different kinds of pain. Common synonyms include pedih, which emphasizes a burning or sharp sensation, and nyeri, which often denotes a dull ache. Sakit is a broader term that can denote illness or general pain.

Perih is typically used in descriptive contexts, and its emotional sense is widely understood across Malay-speaking communities. It is distinguishable from other pain terms by its nuance of tenderness and sting, rather than simply severity. The word is readily understood by speakers in Indonesia and Malaysia and is also found in regional expressions and idiomatic phrases.