By: Yara Zeitoun

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A beautiful thing about languages is how they all have their own kind of pulse. Some are faster, some are slow and sultry. Some are dressed in clipped politeness, and some employ hilarious adjectives.

As a follow up to my five top untranslatable expressions in Arabic, here are some of my favourite adjectives to describe all types of people. All of these are native to the Lebanese dialect, although some can be found and understood elsewhere.

I use these all the time and find myself seriously struggling to find English replacements for them. Half the time, I’m tempted to sit my friends down and teach them some foreign vocab just to be able to really express myself. These words just have so much more meaning, feeling, and (some of them) pure hilarity behind them. The pulse is just completely different.

These words don’t carry any connotations of religion and can be used in jest or seriously, depending on the person you’d like to grace with your choice of adjective or phrase.

To listen to the pronunciation, just copy-paste the Arabic writing into Google.

I’d recommend you to watch who you call a baghel, though:

*For any phonetic nerds out there, the ‘2’ is pronounced like a glottal stop. (For more on Arabish/Franco-Arabic, Wikipedia didn’t do a bad job.)

1- Mahdoom(e) مهدوم

Literal: Digestible
Non-literal: Cute, sweet
Masculine: Mahdoom — Feminine: Mahdoomeh

‘Yiiii, shu mahdoume!’

‘Oh my god, that woman is sooo digestible’

I love this adjective. It’s definitely complimentary to be called ‘mahdoume,’ (Unless sarcasm is used. Yes, other languages also use sarcasm). You can also use it to talk about an object.

There’s really nothing quite like it in English. It’s like calling someone cute, but cute often carries a connotation of being childish, young, or small. Mahdoume can be for a grandma, your friends’ daughter, or someone your age.

A much closer translation would be the Italian/French word simpatico/a or sympa! ❤

2- Sa2eeeeeel(e) سئيل

Literal: dislikeable, annoying, mean
Non-literal: someone who makes ‘lame’ jokes
Masculine: Sa2eel — Feminine: Sa2eeleh

“Shu sa2eeeeeel!”
(What an annoying, dislikeable guy!)

We often extend the ‘e’ for extra emphasis. The worse the person, the more you extend the vowel sound.

This can tastefully be followed by ma byinhadam, ‘you can’t digest him/her.’

“My neighbour is so sa2eel, ma byinhadam!’

This adjective is not flattering. I’d use this to talk about the third wheel in the room, that person no one likes, or that person who makes unnecessary comments. It’s the person that you think of and your face winces, but not out of pity. More out of a disgruntled annoyance. Like when your partner is being really lame. Like Steve Carell’s face.

Apparently, the origin of this word comes from the Arabic word ‘heavy’ — which comes next!

3- Dammo(a) t2eel دمو تقيل

Literal: Heavy blooded/ His/her blood is heavy
Non-literal: Quite similar to sa2eel, someone who just makes you growl with disgust out of annoyance, if there were such a thing.
Masculine: Dammo t2eel — Feminine: Damma t2eel

You can also just say t2eeeel, as in ‘heavy,’ also used in French (il est loure!)

This is really someone you just can’t stand. Or find very irritating, in a specific way. Like, a guest who complains about having so-and-so intolerances, but then proceeds to eat all your food anyways.

My mom really loves this expression/adjective and seems to find many people heavy blooded.

I always tell my partner ‘dammak kteeeer t2eel!’ when he makes bad jokes or annoys me, with a wince on my face. Also, like Steve Carell.

4 — Dullo(a) Khafif ظلو خفيف

Literal: Light shadow
Non-literal: someone who’s presence is barely felt
Masculine: Dullo khafif — Feminine: Dulla khafif

The opposite of #3 and #2. This is a compliment, although maybe not as flattering as mahdoum.

This describes someone who is so easy going and someone so careful not to annoy anyone or do any unnecessary commotion — very rare to find amongst us boisterous Mediterraneans and Arabs in general! (Myself included — my dul’ is really not khafif!)

Usually, it’s someone who is very thoughtful, who remains in the background, but in a positive way.

5- Baghel بغل

Literal: Mule
Non-literal: Sort of like an idiot, but I picture a heavy, physically big one — in the amount of idiocy, not actual fat.
Masculine: Baghel — Feminine: Baghleh

‘Hayda wahad baghel!’
‘This guy is such a mule!’

I really love this one, and it’s so untranslatable. It comes with so many feelings and images, and never fails to make me laugh. My parents use it, mostly to describe men that are thick as bricks and aggressive. Although it can also be used for women, it’s generally an attribute of men — sorry men!

*Phonetics (gh is like a French/German R sound)

. . .

The Pulse of Languages

I love describing people, but I find English can be quite limiting — or at least, modern lay English can be — in its descriptive adjectives. I say this even though I’m an English teacher.

And I’m not disqualifying our funny and complex words and phrasal verbs, but somehow, there’s nothing similar to this. The depth of emotions they bring with them is hard to find in the English language, as much as I love it.

If you work with Arabs or in the Arab world, I would probably avoid using number 2,3, and 5 to talk about someone. I imagine they wouldn’t really be too pleased. Unless they’re friends.

I’ve decided to start dropping these phrases around friends, although they don’t speak Arabic, especially number 2:

Me to my non-Arabic speaking partner: ‘Habibi, you’re so Sa2eel!’

I’ve never actually taught him what it means, but I think from my Steve Carell face impersonation, he can use his deduction skills.

Who says I can’t borrow words from one language and use it another?

The beauty of languages is that there are no real ‘hard and fast’ rules with languages — they’re complex, fluid, pulsating and alive!

Currently, I’m in a house where people are native Greek-Croatian-German-Arabic-English speakers, and it’s an absolute joy that we all learn a few fun words here and there from each language, and use them all together.

What I find missing in one language, I simply borrow from the other. That’s definitely a silver-lining of globalization.

As a third-culture-kid who’s surrounded by a myriad of different languages, I love embracing all the beautiful, quirky, funny, meaningful, and untranslatable words in all their contexts!

Languages can all be beautiful, rude, and hilarious in their own idiosyncratic ways.

Just like the people that speak them.

. . .

What are your top adjectives to describe people? Any funny ones in different languages? Or even in English? Share them below! ❤

Republished with permission from author, originally published on The Shadow

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