Water > Taste > An Introduction to Lebanese > Lebanized Words

Some people love them. Some find them irritating as hell. Some use them with dripping sarcasm and see in them yet another example of the decadence of the Lebanese, whose very language is a bastard. Needless to say I feel sorry for the latter category. I personally find Lebanized words -- words borrowed from other languages and forced to fit our phonetic and grammatical system -- a source of delight and interest. Such unconscious creativity is put in the choice of the words themselves, and in their adaptation to our language!

This will be a long list: here is just a sample while the full page is being prepared. The words without stars are so ingrained in our vocabulary that they are hardly thought of as Lebanized words anymore. Those with one star (*) are clearly imports but people are somewhat used to them. Those with two stars (**) stick out like thorns whenever they are used and will get a "Whoah!" out of many.

Dawwech*
To take a shower (from French "douche")
Haster
To go hysterical (from hysteria)
Dapres*
To be or get depressed (from "depress")
Sayyev*
To save (a computer file)
Farmet*
To format
Raglej*
To adjust (from French "réglage"). The past participle is a jaw-cracking mraglaj.
Farrez*
To freeze (from "freeze", used both for computers and for being cold!)
Garrep*
To catch the flu (from French "grippe"). This word has by itself two sounds that don't exist in Arabic, and the past participle is a particularly awful mgarrap that certainly sounds as if you had a cold.
Slallem**
To slalom between cars.
Asampal**
Simpler (from French or English "simple", mashed into the comparative form)
Akkas*
OK, I love this one. It cracks me up. Akkas is the English/French letter X stretched into a verb form that ends up meaning "make an X". It is always followed by 3a or 3ala (on). "Make an X on" someting or "X" something means to swear it off, renounce it, decide not to have anything to do with it, etc. An example of its use could be: "Since Micho found out that teacher had a crush on him, he Xed her class".
Fuse*
No translation necessary. I will note that someone bala fuse (without fuses) is someone who just doesn't react no matter what is done to them. It's meant for comical effect rather than as a serious reproach.
Fawwel
To fill up or be filled up (from "full"; literally "make to be full").
Shekmén*
The car's exhaust (from French "échappement").

And the winner for craziest adaptation is...
Mshannas**: lucky. It's the word "chance" mashed into the arabic past participle mode.

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