Your complete guide to cursing and abuse

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Warning: this article is an analysis of offensive language and is therefore highly graphic. I'm not responsible for giving ideas to underage people (as if they hadn't heard them all already).

In my study of linguistic habits in cultures I find abuse as interesting and instructive as anything else, not to mention amusing. It is really instructive to have a look at what a population chooses to use as an insulting term.

I would blush to use most of the terms below, but I'll try and objectively list/describe everything I can think of; then I'll balance this article with another article on the blessings and praises we use in daily life. To my countrymen's credit, they have far more ways of thanking and blessing people than they have of cussing them – and in either case the imagery is vivid. It is tempting to go deeper into the research and mark what insults are favored by each different community, but I'll leave that out for now.

I would differentiate between three categories of abuse:

Real bad:: These are either straightforward insults ("dickhead") or statements of intent ("f* you"). You would use them when seriously angry and ready for a fight – because they may well start one. Some of them however can be used with friends and/or have unexpected uses...
Intermediate:: Actual curses ("damn you"). Some time ago these would have been at the top of the offensive list, but curses lost some of their strength nowadays. It is a wonder (and a delight) that they are still used though, vivid as they are.
Harmless (relatively):: Similar to English "you bum" or "you silly thing", they are toned down and even humorous ways of expressing mild annoyance or even amusement. They can be used aggressively, it depends on the tone of voice of the speaker, but they are always safer to use than the above.

Let us now proceed to the list itself. Forgive its explicitness. Lebanese readers, feel free to correct me. You possibly know these better than I do, hehehe.

Real bad

Kess emmak/ekhtak Let's get the very worst ones over with. "Kess" is the word for the female genitals, and the word following it is either "your mother" or "your sister" The implication is "I f* your mother/sister". Understandably in a society that is highly protective of family members, this is a grave offence when used seriously. Yet it is highly popular for "absent abuse" -- cursing a situation, the Israelis, the government -- and so this expression underwent all changes an abusive term can go through, making it a most interesting subject for study.
The first kind of change is elaboration. "I f* the mother of the one who conceived you", "I f* all their mothers together" "I f* the mother of the looks of you" (my brother's favourite), etc. The inhabitants of Zahle are reputedly so skilled at such constructions that they can curse you non-stop for 10 minutes. I have heard something close that made me want to bolt -- I had never heard most of the words in it. Here's just one example of long-winded abuse, provided by a friend who seems to know his stuff: Ethash ejreh bteezak w emsheh a3raj bi layl ma fya daww qamar! ("Stuff my foot up your a.. and walk limping in a night without light of moon!").
Second is on the contrary a way to attenuate it. Amazing how creative one can become at making a bad word more acceptable rather than using a harmless term instead: I guess that would take all the pleasure away. Grown ups might play with the pronunciation or say it with a foreign accent when they're using it for non-aggressive purposes (such as in joking). In my family we lean towards a French (kès èkhtah) or Egyptian accent (kusummik!), but anything goes as long as it makes it obvious that your intentions are comical. My uncle, a practical joker, never tires of the following pun: the word kess is what I explained above, but a slight stress on the "e" turns it into the term we use to toast to someone's health. You can imagine the implications! Every birthday is a pretext for him to go "keeeeeess ekhte/emme" (a highly ambiguous "a toast to my sister/mom").
As for children, they are unavoidably drawn to this expletive, but their variation is really cute. The word kess is pronounced exactly like English "kiss" Therefore some unknown genius came up with the more polite "kiss me again" (that adults use as well by the way). Walk around Beirut and you will overhear many situations that will strike you as bizarre. Someone drops something that breaks on impact -- "kiss me again!" A car narrowly misses a cat crossing the road -- "kiss me again!" My ink bottle topples over the work I just finished -- "kiss me AGAIN!!!" Naturally this version isn't suitable for insulting someone, it is only used to vent frustration.

Eyreh feek Eyreh means "my cock", and feek "in you". Ouch! Like the kess series, only men are supposed to use it, for obvious reasons. Women find them particularly satisfying to use, however, because they are so strong. By the way this form above is supposed to be used by a man towards another man; I have seldom heard it used towards a woman. As a variation you can simply call a man an eyr, and the combination is particularly colourful.
The worst term ever could be "Eyreh be afass seder emmak": "my dick in your mother's rib cage". It's horrid!

Maniak The fact that kess sounds like English "kiss" is bad enough, but we also have maniak that is so close to "maniac". Maniak is the past participle of the verb Neek meaning "to f*", so it means something like "faggot". The French have a literal equivalent: "Enculé!"

Akhu sharmoota "Brother of a whore": more used in these parts than ibn (son) of the same.
Something funny: the behaviour that consists in using very bad words in an affectionate way seems to be universal. I known that English speakers, especially younger ones, use them among good friends. What surprised me though was the time I went with a friend to his home village where he was greeted by the priest's wife in these terms: "Akhu sharmoota! I missed you!"
A woman would be called straight out, a sharmoota. Funnily, again, I've seen many people lovingly apply the term to their female pets. I assume that they find endearing in a cat what's not acceptable in a human being!

Ahbe I have mentioned sharmoota ("whore") above; an ahbe is a slut, i.e. a woman who loves having sex without takign any money. I've never heard it used personally; it clearly reflects old ways of thinking.

Mal3oob bi asfalak "Played with your bottom". I can only assume it means "buggered".

Ibn haram! "Son of sin!", in other words "bastard".

Kalb! "Dog!" I think everyone is familiar with the way people feel about this insult in the Middle-East. Centuries of use haven't made it any less offensive!

Hayawan! "Animal!"The same as above.

Khara! "Shit!" This isn't used as an expletive, as in French and English; you are actually calling someone a shit. I think that originally it was only used with men, because a female form was coined (kheryieh) that sounds female even though it doesn't really exist.

3akroot! "Pimp". The strange thing about this one, and also about az3ar, "demon" is that parents use them affectionately with their children (like "little devil!"), and yet will gasp if they hear the latter using them. Also, the female form of az3ar, za3ra, doesn't seem to be a bad word anymore. It is used like French "coquine" to describe an impish, smart little girl with a mind of her own -- my mom still calls me that at times.

Baghl! "Mule!" Guess what I always use with retard truck drivers? A variant that I find more fun is the more refined Baheem ("bovine creature").

Hmar! "Jackass!"

Teez! "Butt". For some reason babies are fawned upon with a diminutive of the same (taztoozo, "little butt"). Like I said, there is some mysterious connection between insults and endearment terms I have yet to understand!

Intermediate

Yel3an deenak! "May He damn your religion!" The most common in a long list of variations on the same format: "some destructive action - your - something dear to you".
My favourite has been out of use for a while: "May your beard fall off" or "May God send you a razor". This was used exclusively towards priests: the beard was and still is a most sacred part of their persons. Insulting the priestly beard in this way was an offence punishable by law!

Yel3an abook! "May He damn your father!" This is very bad. A sure way to push buttons is to threaten or badmouth someone's family.
Variant: Yel3an deen abook -- "Damn your father's religion."

Yel3an 3ardak! "Damn your width", or the space you occupy.

Yakhreb beytak! "May he make your house crumble", to mean "Ruin to your house/family". (The word "house" being used to designate on'es family)

Yakhreb zoo'ak! "May he make your taste crumble." The "yakhreb" series, presumably more obsolete than the rest, are now used as compliments, something like saying "Damn it's hard to believe you have such lovely children / that you are so talented / etc". As a child I heard it a lot: "Yakhreb zoo'ik you are so cute!" As if to say "You are so cute that I almost resent you!"

Yu'suf 3amrak! "May He blast your life!"

Yahreq deenak! "May he burn your religion!"

Yeqta3 3amrak! "May He cut your life!"

This category leaves a lot of room for creativity.
Harmless
As I said above, the words in this series serve to express disapproval without risking a beating. They are also widely used in familiar settings. My teachers in high school used them often to address us – that'll tell you what a brilliant and hard-working class we were. These are my favourite because they are vivid and absurd, the kind you'd expect to find in a comic book rather than real life.
The word "ya" is vocative like the O in English ("O king"). Unlike English though there is no quaintness associated to it, it's used a little like "hey" or " you ..."

Ya lamba! Lamba is the French word for lamp, lebanized. The particularity of a lamp is to be brilliant in the proper sense. The use is sarcastic: "You're like a lamp! Not!"

Ya 3ab'ar! "You genius!" – here again, sarcastically.

Ya train! Yes, this is the word "train" although it is pronounced à la Lebanese, "trrehn". It refers to the fact trains only move in one direction, and is used like "baghl".

Ya jagal! Jagal is a useful word. I believe it is derived from the word gigolo. Jagal is not an insult per se; actually its original meaning is rather positive, meaning a hunky young man. However, whether in addressing someone or in the course of conversation, it is almost exclusively used in a sarcastic way. What it denotes is a young man who is certain of his charm and equipped with all the accessories necessary to make the ladies drop into his arms (shades, rolex, mobile phone at the belt, sports car, toothpaste-ad smirk, narcissistic attitude). I think the American equivalent is "player".
Ninety-five percent of the male Lebanese youth are constituted of jagals, and the same percentage (or more) of the other sex is made up of the female equivalent, "shalkha".

Ya Tarazan! Have you ever been called a Tarzan? You might over here. It's as if to say "You who think you are Tarzan, all strong and mighty and all, I have news for you, you are NOT."

Ya Antar! Antar is a hero in Arabic literature that I am not familiar with, but that could be compared to Hercules I guess. Same as Tarzan -- "If you think you're Antar -- because you sure are acting as if you were -- you're not!"

Ya Tatar! You probably heard of the Tartars, invaders from Central Asia who left their mark on the area a long, long time ago. I am amazed that the word is still used. What seems to have survived in the collective memory is the utter lack of taste, education and hygiene of those nomads. It is in that sense that the word is used, sort of like "barbarian" in the West. This insult is borderline offensive and should not be used by the uninitiated.

Ya Nawar! The Nawar are a contemporary nomadic Beduin tribe, so everything that applies to the Tatars applies here. Someone wearing a garish assortment of colours is said to have a Nawar's taste. Ya qaleel al adab! ("You with little literacy") and Fallah ("peasant") are of similar meaning but less used than Nawar and Tatar. After all it is unlikely for a Beduin or a Tartar to be around and react to the use of the word, but many pride themselves (and justly so) on descending from a family of tillers.

Ya zuzu! or Ya wazwaz! Zuzu and Wazwaz are the same word under different forms. Hillbilly would be a good equivalent, but geek and nerd fit perfectly as well. In our Architecture department it was understood that this was the term to use when talking about the engineers next door -- that old feud between architects and engineers is international.

Ya bazawang! I've never heard this but was told it existed. It means "drunk and stupid".

Ya khantarish! This word is Turkish, but I have no idea what it means.

Ya safastak! Same here.

Ya keshkesh! Another mystery.

One last warning: If you travel to the Middle-East and use any of the terms above, I am not responsible for the consequences! Common sense would dictate to keep a low profile when in unfamiliar territory.

Article © Joumana Medlej

Real bad
Kess emmak/ekhtak	Let's get the very worst ones over with. "Kess" is the word for the female genitals, and the word following it is either "your mother" or "your sister" The implication is "I f* your mother/sister". Understandably in a society that is highly protective of family members, this is a grave offence when used seriously. Yet it is highly popular for "absent abuse" -- cursing a situation, the Israelis, the government -- and so this expression underwent all changes an abusive term can go through, making it a most interesting subject for study. The first kind of change is elaboration. "I f* the mother of the one who conceived you", "I f* all their mothers together" "I f* the mother of the looks of you" (my brother's favourite), etc. The inhabitants of Zahle are reputedly so skilled at such constructions that they can curse you non-stop for 10 minutes. I have heard something close that made me want to bolt -- I had never heard most of the words in it. Here's just one example of long-winded abuse, provided by a friend who seems to know his stuff: Ethash ejreh bteezak w emsheh a3raj bi layl ma fya daww qamar! ("Stuff my foot up your a.. and walk limping in a night without light of moon!"). Second is on the contrary a way to attenuate it. Amazing how creative one can become at making a bad word more acceptable rather than using a harmless term instead: I guess that would take all the pleasure away. Grown ups might play with the pronunciation or say it with a foreign accent when they're using it for non-aggressive purposes (such as in joking). In my family we lean towards a French (kès èkhtah) or Egyptian accent (kusummik!), but anything goes as long as it makes it obvious that your intentions are comical. My uncle, a practical joker, never tires of the following pun: the word kess is what I explained above, but a slight stress on the "e" turns it into the term we use to toast to someone's health. You can imagine the implications! Every birthday is a pretext for him to go "keeeeeess ekhte/emme" (a highly ambiguous "a toast to my sister/mom"). As for children, they are unavoidably drawn to this expletive, but their variation is really cute. The word kess is pronounced exactly like English "kiss" Therefore some unknown genius came up with the more polite "kiss me again" (that adults use as well by the way). Walk around Beirut and you will overhear many situations that will strike you as bizarre. Someone drops something that breaks on impact -- "kiss me again!" A car narrowly misses a cat crossing the road -- "kiss me again!" My ink bottle topples over the work I just finished -- "kiss me AGAIN!!!" Naturally this version isn't suitable for insulting someone, it is only used to vent frustration.
Eyreh feek	Eyreh means "my cock", and feek "in you". Ouch! Like the kess series, only men are supposed to use it, for obvious reasons. Women find them particularly satisfying to use, however, because they are so strong. By the way this form above is supposed to be used by a man towards another man; I have seldom heard it used towards a woman. As a variation you can simply call a man an eyr, and the combination is particularly colourful. The worst term ever could be "Eyreh be afass seder emmak": "my dick in your mother's rib cage". It's horrid!
Maniak	The fact that kess sounds like English "kiss" is bad enough, but we also have maniak that is so close to "maniac". Maniak is the past participle of the verb Neek meaning "to f*", so it means something like "faggot". The French have a literal equivalent: "Enculé!"
Akhu sharmoota	"Brother of a whore": more used in these parts than ibn (son) of the same. Something funny: the behaviour that consists in using very bad words in an affectionate way seems to be universal. I known that English speakers, especially younger ones, use them among good friends. What surprised me though was the time I went with a friend to his home village where he was greeted by the priest's wife in these terms: "Akhu sharmoota! I missed you!" A woman would be called straight out, a sharmoota. Funnily, again, I've seen many people lovingly apply the term to their female pets. I assume that they find endearing in a cat what's not acceptable in a human being!
Ahbe	I have mentioned sharmoota ("whore") above; an ahbe is a slut, i.e. a woman who loves having sex without takign any money. I've never heard it used personally; it clearly reflects old ways of thinking.
Mal3oob bi asfalak	"Played with your bottom". I can only assume it means "buggered".
Ibn haram!	"Son of sin!", in other words "bastard".
Kalb!	"Dog!" I think everyone is familiar with the way people feel about this insult in the Middle-East. Centuries of use haven't made it any less offensive!
Hayawan!	"Animal!"The same as above.
Khara!	"Shit!" This isn't used as an expletive, as in French and English; you are actually calling someone a shit. I think that originally it was only used with men, because a female form was coined (kheryieh) that sounds female even though it doesn't really exist.
3akroot!	"Pimp". The strange thing about this one, and also about az3ar, "demon" is that parents use them affectionately with their children (like "little devil!"), and yet will gasp if they hear the latter using them. Also, the female form of az3ar, za3ra, doesn't seem to be a bad word anymore. It is used like French "coquine" to describe an impish, smart little girl with a mind of her own -- my mom still calls me that at times.
Baghl!	"Mule!" Guess what I always use with retard truck drivers? A variant that I find more fun is the more refined Baheem ("bovine creature").
Hmar!	"Jackass!"
Teez!	"Butt". For some reason babies are fawned upon with a diminutive of the same (taztoozo, "little butt"). Like I said, there is some mysterious connection between insults and endearment terms I have yet to understand!
Intermediate
Yel3an deenak!	"May He damn your religion!" The most common in a long list of variations on the same format: "some destructive action - your - something dear to you". My favourite has been out of use for a while: "May your beard fall off" or "May God send you a razor". This was used exclusively towards priests: the beard was and still is a most sacred part of their persons. Insulting the priestly beard in this way was an offence punishable by law!
Yel3an abook!	"May He damn your father!" This is very bad. A sure way to push buttons is to threaten or badmouth someone's family. Variant: Yel3an deen abook -- "Damn your father's religion."
Yel3an 3ardak!	"Damn your width", or the space you occupy.
Yakhreb beytak!	"May he make your house crumble", to mean "Ruin to your house/family". (The word "house" being used to designate on'es family)
Yakhreb zoo'ak!	"May he make your taste crumble." The "yakhreb" series, presumably more obsolete than the rest, are now used as compliments, something like saying "Damn it's hard to believe you have such lovely children / that you are so talented / etc". As a child I heard it a lot: "Yakhreb zoo'ik you are so cute!" As if to say "You are so cute that I almost resent you!"
Yu'suf 3amrak!	"May He blast your life!"
Yahreq deenak!	"May he burn your religion!"
Yeqta3 3amrak!	"May He cut your life!"
This category leaves a lot of room for creativity. Harmless As I said above, the words in this series serve to express disapproval without risking a beating. They are also widely used in familiar settings. My teachers in high school used them often to address us – that'll tell you what a brilliant and hard-working class we were. These are my favourite because they are vivid and absurd, the kind you'd expect to find in a comic book rather than real life. The word "ya" is vocative like the O in English ("O king"). Unlike English though there is no quaintness associated to it, it's used a little like "hey" or " you ..."
Ya lamba!	Lamba is the French word for lamp, lebanized. The particularity of a lamp is to be brilliant in the proper sense. The use is sarcastic: "You're like a lamp! Not!"
Ya 3ab'ar!	"You genius!" – here again, sarcastically.
Ya train!	Yes, this is the word "train" although it is pronounced à la Lebanese, "trrehn". It refers to the fact trains only move in one direction, and is used like "baghl".
Ya jagal!	Jagal is a useful word. I believe it is derived from the word gigolo. Jagal is not an insult per se; actually its original meaning is rather positive, meaning a hunky young man. However, whether in addressing someone or in the course of conversation, it is almost exclusively used in a sarcastic way. What it denotes is a young man who is certain of his charm and equipped with all the accessories necessary to make the ladies drop into his arms (shades, rolex, mobile phone at the belt, sports car, toothpaste-ad smirk, narcissistic attitude). I think the American equivalent is "player". Ninety-five percent of the male Lebanese youth are constituted of jagals, and the same percentage (or more) of the other sex is made up of the female equivalent, "shalkha".
Ya Tarazan!	Have you ever been called a Tarzan? You might over here. It's as if to say "You who think you are Tarzan, all strong and mighty and all, I have news for you, you are NOT."
Ya Antar!	Antar is a hero in Arabic literature that I am not familiar with, but that could be compared to Hercules I guess. Same as Tarzan -- "If you think you're Antar -- because you sure are acting as if you were -- you're not!"
Ya Tatar!	You probably heard of the Tartars, invaders from Central Asia who left their mark on the area a long, long time ago. I am amazed that the word is still used. What seems to have survived in the collective memory is the utter lack of taste, education and hygiene of those nomads. It is in that sense that the word is used, sort of like "barbarian" in the West. This insult is borderline offensive and should not be used by the uninitiated.
Ya Nawar!	The Nawar are a contemporary nomadic Beduin tribe, so everything that applies to the Tatars applies here. Someone wearing a garish assortment of colours is said to have a Nawar's taste. Ya qaleel al adab! ("You with little literacy") and Fallah ("peasant") are of similar meaning but less used than Nawar and Tatar. After all it is unlikely for a Beduin or a Tartar to be around and react to the use of the word, but many pride themselves (and justly so) on descending from a family of tillers.
Ya zuzu! or Ya wazwaz!	Zuzu and Wazwaz are the same word under different forms. Hillbilly would be a good equivalent, but geek and nerd fit perfectly as well. In our Architecture department it was understood that this was the term to use when talking about the engineers next door -- that old feud between architects and engineers is international.
Ya bazawang!	I've never heard this but was told it existed. It means "drunk and stupid".
Ya khantarish!	This word is Turkish, but I have no idea what it means.
Ya safastak!	Same here.
Ya keshkesh!	Another mystery.