Damaskopolis Glossary of Terms

Doing more edits of the novel and I decided it would be helpful to include a glossary of the terms and language used by some of the characters in Damaskopolis. Because I realise not everybody is a third culture kid or speaks both Arabic and English…

Galabiya - A comfortable type of home garment usually worn at home by both men and women.

Iftah Ya Simsim - literally means ‘Open Sesame’.

Jezveh - The name for a type of coffee pot used in the Levant.

Khara - Shit.

Kiss Ikhtak - Literally ‘Your Sister’s Vagina’.

Kiss ikht hazee - Literally ‘The sister of my luck’s vagina.’

Kiss imek - ‘Your mother’s vagina.’

Kiss Umkon Wlad al Sharmoota - Vagina of your mother, you children of a bitch.

Mabrook - Congratulations

Manyuk - Fucker.

Mafhoum - Do you understand?

Mintad - Brand of 20th-century Syrian chewing gum.

Sade - Black Coffee.

Safinaz - a term of endearment used when somebody is lost in thought.

Sharmoota - Bitch.

Shabab - Guys

Shabeeh - “Ghost” and is a Syrian term for criminal thugs.

Shaitan - Devil.

Sherwal - Baggy trousers that were the fashion for men in 20th-century Damascus.

Sheshmeh - Turkish word meaning toilet. Still in use by some Damascenes.

Shukran - Thank you.

Staghfer Allah - God forgive us.

Yallah - Used in place of Let’s Go, or come on.

Ya Arsa - You pimp.