Probably via Middle Persian dptl (daftar), from Aramaic דפתרא / ܕܦܬܪܐ, from Ancient Greek διφθέρα (diphthéra).^[1]

• IPA^(key): /daf.tar/

دَفْتَر • (daftar) m (plural دَفَاتِر (dafātir))

1. register; roster
2. notebook; copybook; exercise book

• Wehr, Hans (1979) “دفتر”, in J. Milton Cowan, editor, A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic, 4th edition, Ithaca, NY: Spoken Language Services, →ISBN

Borrowed from Arabic دَفْتَر (daftar, “register; notebook”), from Aramaic דהפתּיר (defter), ultimately from Ancient Greek διφθέρα (diphthéra)

دفتر • (defter) (plural دفاتر (defatir))

1. register, ledger, a book used for the inscription of lists, accounts, etc.

   Synonym: جریده (ceride)

2. notebook, rough book, a book in which notes and memoranda are written

   Synonym: سفینه (sefine)

3. roll, catalogue, list, inventory, especially the ones kept for official purposes

   Synonym: پوصوله (pusula)

• Turkish: defter
• → Bulgarian: тефте́р (teftér)
• → Crimean Tatar: defter
• → English: defter
• → Greek: τεφτέρι (teftéri)
• → Ladino: tefter
• → Macedonian: тефтер (tefter)
• → Romanian: tefter
• → Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic script: де̏фтер

  Latin script: dȅfter

• Çağbayır, Yaşar (2007) “defter”, in Ötüken Türkçe Sözlük (in Turkish), volume 1, Istanbul: Ötüken Neşriyat, page 1126
• Hindoglu, Artin (1838) “دفتر”, in Hazine-i lûgat ou dictionnaire abrégé turc-français‎^[1], Vienna: F. Beck, page 225a
• Kélékian, Diran (1911) “دفتر”, in Dictionnaire turc-français‎^[2], Constantinople: Mihran, page 574
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1687) “Registrum”, in Complementum thesauri linguarum orientalium, seu onomasticum latino-turcico-arabico-persicum, simul idem index verborum lexici turcico-arabico-persici, quod latinâ, germanicâ, aliarumque linguarum adjectâ nomenclatione nuper in lucem editum‎^[3], Vienna, column 1453
• Meninski, Franciszek à Mesgnien (1680) “دفتر”, in Thesaurus linguarum orientalium, Turcicae, Arabicae, Persicae, praecipuas earum opes à Turcis peculiariter usurpatas continens, nimirum Lexicon Turkico-Arabico-Persicum‎^[4], Vienna, column 2096
• Nişanyan, Sevan (2002–) “defter”, in Nişanyan Sözlük
• Redhouse, James W. (1890) “دفتر”, in A Turkish and English Lexicon‎^[5], Constantinople: A. H. Boyajian, page 906

Inherited from Middle Persian [script needed] (dptl /⁠daftar⁠/), from Aramaic דפתרא / ܕܦܬܪܐ, from Ancient Greek διφθέρα (diphthéra). The learned plural دفاتر (dafâter) is re-borrowed from Arabic.

• Audio (Iran):

  (file)

دفتر • (daftar) (plural دفترها (daftar-hâ) or دفاتر (dafâter))

1. register, account book

   وارد دفتر کردن

   vâred-e daftar kardan

   to register, to make an entry in the account book

2. notebook, journal

   دفتر خاطرات روزانه

   daftar-e xâterât-e ruzâne

   personal journal

   (literally, “notebook of daily thoughts”)

   • c. 1390, Shams-ud-Dīn Muḥammad Ḥāfiẓ, “Ghazal 162”, in دیوان حافظ [The Divān of Ḥāfiẓ]‎^[6]:

     بشوی اوراق اگر همدرس مایی
     که علم عشق در دفتر نباشد

     bišōy awrāq agar hamdars-i mā-yī
     ki ilm-i išq dar daftar na-bāšad

     Wash away the pages if you are our classmate,
     For the science of love is not in the notebooks.

     (Classical Persian transliteration)

3. office, office building

   رفتم دفترم ― raftam daftar-am ― I went to my office

• → Punjabi:

  Gurmukhi script: ਦਫ਼ਤਰ (daftar)

  Shahmukhi script: دفتر (daftar)

• Bailey, H. W. (1933) “Western Iranian Dialects”, in Transactions of the Philological Society, volume 32, number 1, page 50
• http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/daftar-mid

Urdu Wikipedia has an article on:

دفتر

Wikipedia ^ur

Borrowed from Classical Persian دَفْتَر (daftar).

• (Standard Urdu) IPA^(key): /d̪əf.t̪əɾ/
• Rhymes: -əɾ

دَفْتَر • (daftar) m (Hindi spelling दफ़्तर)

1. office, workplace

• “دفتر”, in اُردُو لُغَت (urdū luġat) (in Urdu), Ministry of Education: Government of Pakistan, 2017.
• “دفتر”, in ریخْتَہ لُغَت (rexta luġat) - Rekhta Dictionary [Urdu dictionary with meanings in Hindi & English], Noida, India: Rekhta Foundation, 2025.