posted
Toota is a “term of endearment”, translated, it'll sound awkward because toot(a) is literally translated as berries (blueberry/raspberry) but here it's used in a da-la3 way(pampering).
So he's wanting your well being but stating it in a charming/endearing way. The dude likes you and probably said that in a goodbye situation or perhaps upon learning something unfortunate (usually health wise) happened to you.
Posts: 2275 | Registered: Dec 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Mo Ning Min E: And 'Alf salaama' means 'A thousand good wishes'
It's quite extraordinary how colloquial Egyptian is translated. This is not a dig at Mo Ning, but as a perpetual student of Arabic Language & Dialects – I am convinced that translation depreciates the literal meaning of a word or phrase.
No where in "Alf Salama" is the word "wishes" used in Arabic.
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posted
Ok, 'blessings' then.In colloquial English, 'good wishes' can be used as any kind of well meant, positive salutation. And Alf mabrouk on your extensive multiliguistic skills! Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Out of the entire phrase the Op used “alf salaama ya toota” everything is defined. You mentioned alf=(1000/exaggeration). Ya(you) and toota(berry) are also straighforward. But 'salaama' is impossible to translate without knowing the context of the conversation.
For fun. Ask your Egyptian friends what does “salaama” mean. And just enjoy the looks on their faces because they'll actually have to think, and they'll each give you a different answer.
It's no wonder that Arabic is a level 4 language along with Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The toughest languages in the world.
posted
I am crushed. I really thought I was using the context appropriate to the OP's use of the phrase.
Thank God, the word 'alf' was not followed by $$$$$ signs.
Actually, whenever I ask my egyptian friends to explain a word, they often have to stop and think, maybe not because the word or phrase is obscure or vague, but because English is so MAD! How anyone learns it, all it's tricks and traps, is beyond me. I bet 'salaama' translates easily into Japanese, or Serbo-Croat.
Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Speaking of language, an Egyptian guy I know invented an English word, [ok, by accident,] but brilliant, should be in the OED. 'Manywhere' So precise.
Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
No, I'm here studying the art of survival. My knowledge of Egyptian Arabic is pure 'street' I think. Called a customer services guy at the bank A 'balamuti kibeer' the other day. But if I had my life over, amongst other things, I'd study language. For instance, I have a suspicion that the word 'floozy' for instance originated with Egyptian street girls asking English soldiers for money... hmmm. And did you know that the word 'sharmoota' came from the French 'charmante' [much nicer.]
Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Mo Ning Min E: No, I'm here studying the art of survival. My knowledge of Egyptian Arabic is pure 'street' I think. Called a customer services guy at the bank A 'balamuti kibeer' the other day. But if I had my life over, amongst other things, I'd study language. For instance, I have a suspicion that the word 'floozy' for instance originated with Egyptian street girls asking English soldiers for money... hmmm. And did you know that the word 'sharmoota' came from the French 'charmante' [much nicer.]
posted
Nope. In fact the timimg [turn of the century] only reinforces my suspicion. It was around that time that the word 'bint' [London slang for girl, obviously] started. Floss? Too tenuous. Eat your heart out OED. But who cares what i think? Totally O/T here. I also happen to think that the [almost] Etisalat logo on World Cup footballs [soccer balls to you Met] causes a visual distortion as it moves. Optical illusion. Which probably does not affect Germans.
Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Mo Ning Min E: No, I'm here studying the art of survival. My knowledge of Egyptian Arabic is pure 'street' I think. Called a customer services guy at the bank A 'balamuti kibeer' the other day. But if I had my life over, amongst other things, I'd study language. For instance, I have a suspicion that the word 'floozy' for instance originated with Egyptian street girls asking English soldiers for money... hmmm. And did you know that the word 'sharmoota' came from the French 'charmante' [much nicer.]
why would it change her mind? thats pretty much what she said
"For instance, I have a suspicion that the word 'floozy' for instance originated with Egyptian street girls asking English soldiers for money... hmmm."
A floozy is “a girl or woman, especially one of disreputable character,” Oxford Dictionary
Posts: 15090 | From: http://www.egyptalk.com/forum/ | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
And just the mere mention of German people has given me an overwhelming desire to go out and drink a beer. Sad the OP never got back to us. Maybe she was hoping it meant 'I am a millionaire who will sweep you off to the Dubai shopping festival in my private jet'.
Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Floozy is an American term, Capote created the use.
Not all insulting terms towards women were created for use on Egyptian women.
And the Arabs certainly can create their own insults, sharmoot is also a term for "dirty rag" which I recall ESer revert of British origins had informed us all with no one objecting. It was used within the context of a plumber asking for a sharmoot to wipe his hands after working on pipes.
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posted
but it had become somewhat respectably established by mid-century, when Truman Capote, in The Grass Harp, included this line: “He bought a red racy car and went skidding around … with every floozy in town; the only nice girls you ever saw in that car were
Obviously Capote did NOT create the word dumbo. You cannot invent a word fifty plus years after it is in common usage. What are you wittering about? I'm not going to waste my time discussing something that is clearly out of your league, sorry, but not surprised others have problems with you.
Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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-------------------- If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them. Posts: 15090 | From: http://www.egyptalk.com/forum/ | Registered: Jul 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Mo Ning Min E: I also happen to think that the [almost] Etisalat logo on World Cup footballs [soccer balls to you Met] causes a visual distortion as it moves. Optical illusion. Which probably does not affect Germans.
We get a moving FIFA logo which is just as disturbing. Posts: 2803 | Registered: Feb 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Mo Ning Min E: but it had become somewhat respectably established by mid-century, when Truman Capote, in The Grass Harp, included this line: “He bought a red racy car and went skidding around … with every floozy in town; the only nice girls you ever saw in that car were
Obviously Capote did NOT create the word dumbo. You cannot invent a word fifty plus years after it is in common usage. What are you wittering about? I'm not going to waste my time discussing something that is clearly out of your league, sorry, but not surprised others have problems with you.
I came up with a hyperlink detailing how I came across my information.
Your "evidence" is an insult.
Not very convincing.
Posts: 2280 | Registered: Oct 2009
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quote:Originally posted by Mo Ning Min E: Nope. In fact the timimg [turn of the century] only reinforces my suspicion. It was around that time that the word 'bint' [London slang for girl, obviously] started. Floss? Too tenuous. Eat your heart out OED. But who cares what i think? Totally O/T here. I also happen to think that the [almost] Etisalat logo on World Cup footballs [soccer balls to you Met] causes a visual distortion as it moves. Optical illusion. Which probably does not affect Germans.
'bint' is Arabic and always has been. This comes to show what was a native word, practice, piece of wisdom the English take credit for it and turn it into something ugly:
'Bint' is one of many words used instead of 'girl' or 'woman'. It usually implies sexual availability. It is a bit dated, it was much used by British troops during the World Wars.
Answer
The word probably originates from Arabic, where it means "daughter of" (and often appears in female names in Muslim countries, as bint or binti, cognate with bin "son of"). It was picked up by British soldiers derving in the Middle East, and as suggested above, is mildly derogatory, and now dated.
Meaning of... Word: Bint Meaning: The word bint means 'daughter-of', so Fatimah bint Muhammed means Fatima daughter-of Muhammed (AS). Sometimes the word bint is used to mean a girl. True Form: بنت Grammar: word; Explanation:
But I digress from the question at hand. Are you a floozy (alt. floozie, floosie, floosy, floogy, flugie, flusie, fluzie, faloosie) by virtue of a predilection for leopard-print camisoles, a penchant for dancing on tables in nightclubs, and/or a career as a sex worker?
In its current usage, the definition of floozy, exemplified by our own Random House Webster's College Dictionary, would indicate that the answer is all of the above. 'A gaudily dressed, usu. promiscuous woman, esp. a prostitute' pretty much sums it up. But as is so often the case when you dig deep into a word's past, this is far from the end of the tawdry tale on floozy. The real dirt on floozy is that it has relatively innocuous origins and that its current disreputable incarnation can be viewed as a reflection of an excess of mid-20th century moralizing, with more than a tinge of the old double-standard.
The earliest sense of floozy, circa the late 19th or early 20th century, is that of a girl or young woman. This sense most likely stems from a variety of words rooted in floss, a dialectal variant of which is floose. Attestations recorded from the 1700's on have floss as referring initially specifically to the silky filament surrounding the cocoon of the silk worm, and by the mid-18th century to anything silky, downy, or fluffy. "Hair, like the silken floss of the maize, hung over his shoulder," Longfellow wrote in 1847. By the late 1800's, the adjectival sense of flossy (or flossie) had taken on two distinct colloquial meanings of 'fancy, showy, stylish, beautiful' ("The flossiest suit of clothes you ever saw," 1895) and 'impertinent, saucy,' ("Phil, we have got it in for you if you don't quit being so flossy," 1889) as well as 'a young woman' in its noun form.
Very quickly, the noun sense of floozy as 'a young woman to whom attention is paid' (Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang, 1911) vied with that of 'a questionable female character' (RHHDAS, 1914). The "girl" sense stuck around at least until 1945, when you could say "You're off the beam because you got a sugar report from a flugie" and be perfectly understood as meaning "You are confused because you received a love letter from a girl" (RHHDAS). But starting around the end of WWII, this sense was almost completely supplanted by the derogative, "promiscuous" sense. This definition from the Dictionary of American Slang, published in 1960, bears printing in full: 'an undisciplined, promiscuous, flirtatious, irresponsible girl or woman, esp. a cynical, calculating one who is only concerned with having a good time or living off the generosity of men; a cheap or loose girl or woman.' It was apparently just a short, high-heeled, step from enjoying sex (being an 'enthusiastic amateur,' according to Partridge's definition of floozy in his A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English) to being a prostitute, at least for women.
posted
'bint' is Arabic and always has been. This comes to show what was a native word, practice, piece of wisdom the English take credit for it and turn it into something ugly:
Doh! Told you you didn't understand. I SAID that I SUSPECTED that the word 'floozy' was a word picked up by British troops,at the turn of the 19th/20th century,based on the Egyptian word for money. And all your nonsense [that you spent all day searching for, get a LIFE woman] hasn't added anything has it? Except your bizarre assertation that Truman Capote created words.
'Bint' is one of many words used instead of 'girl' or 'woman'. It usually implies sexual availability. It is a bit dated, it was much used by British troops during the World Wars.
Many phrases, words, habits and beliefs find their way around the world in the kitbags of military people. Egyptian Arabic has loads of words derived from Turkish, French, English even, and most of the rest came with Arab 'invaders'. The English language, and probably others, are littered with words like this, which is one of the reasons language is so fascinating. It is well documented that the word 'bint' found its way into English slang in this way.It has been around mainly in London, and whilst your reference suggested otherwise it has never been a term of abuse [overfamiliarity/disrespect maybe].
And stop the USA vs UK rubbish, America does not have its own language, that's why you speak English. Oh dear, why am I talking to you?
Posts: 1399 | From: alexandria | Registered: Jan 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Mo Ning Min E: 'bint' is Arabic and always has been. This comes to show what was a native word, practice, piece of wisdom the English take credit for it and turn it into something ugly:
Doh! Told you you didn't understand. I SAID that I SUSPECTED that the word 'floozy' was a word picked up by British troops,at the turn of the 19th/20th century,based on the Egyptian word for money. And all your nonsense [that you spent all day searching for, get a LIFE woman] hasn't added anything has it? Except your bizarre assertation that Truman Capote created words.
'Bint' is one of many words used instead of 'girl' or 'woman'. It usually implies sexual availability. It is a bit dated, it was much used by British troops during the World Wars.
Many phrases, words, habits and beliefs find their way around the world in the kitbags of military people. Egyptian Arabic has loads of words derived from Turkish, French, English even, and most of the rest came with Arab 'invaders'. The English language, and probably others, are littered with words like this, which is one of the reasons language is so fascinating. It is well documented that the word 'bint' found its way into English slang in this way.It has been around mainly in London, and whilst your reference suggested otherwise it has never been a term of abuse [overfamiliarity/disrespect maybe].
And stop the USA vs UK rubbish, America does not have its own language, that's why you speak English. Oh dear, why am I talking to you?
In otherwords your "suspicions" have been upset by me posting "fact".
Gees I managed to bust through the thick skull of a hobbit and put some fact in there.
Someone call the authorities there's a hobbit leak. Posts: 2280 | Registered: Oct 2009
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posted
The Australian term nick off comes from Arabic... I don't need Google to explain Posts: 11097 | From: Cairo | Registered: May 2008
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posted
sono posted 'fact'? where? someone give me the link, I HAVE to see that
-------------------- If you don't learn from your mistakes, there's no sense making them. Posts: 15090 | From: http://www.egyptalk.com/forum/ | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
And all this commotion because of a nice expression???? Posts: 30135 | From: The owner of this website killed ES....... | Registered: Feb 2004
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posted
And like the origin of many words and sayings in the English language the origin has always been and will always be tenuous, heresay and an accumulation of probabilities. For every Google search you find supporting your own theory you will find numerous others supporting a different theory.
Posts: 11097 | From: Cairo | Registered: May 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Cheekyferret: And like the origin of many words and sayings in the English language the origin has always been and will always be tenuous, heresay and an accumulation of probabilities. For every Google search you find supporting your own theory you will find numerous others supporting a different theory.
And yet no one else has brought hyperlinks from differing linguistic theories.
Posts: 2280 | Registered: Oct 2009
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posted
I am taking from that statement you don't read litertature and simply believe all you can find online.... there are thousands of books on the origin of language.
Bless.
Have you heard of a library... books? Or at least a personal opinion!
Do we all have the time to trawl the net for tittle tattle to find defensive remarks to belittle others??? I wish I did.
You don't even use reliable sources!!!
I am sure somewhere the tenuous answers are out there, just not on Wiki shitty and Google. Try living up to the IQ you proclaim to have and argue a little more constructively and intellectually... you may even get a sticker for trying.
I learned a lot from books Mostly psychology books and you my dear are a lovely subject to folow.
Do you always anwser everything with an accusation or an insult or at times can you find real answers? Are you so accusational and defensive in real life or does your online persona take over.
Have you ever thought of therapy at all? Hey, why not do a Google!!!!
And sweetheart, your use of linguistics, logic and reason are disturbing, hence no-one EVER taking you seriously.
Posts: 11097 | From: Cairo | Registered: May 2008
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