Glossary

41. Jewish Christmas

celebrating Christmas by going out for Chinese food. The practice is called thus because this is apparently a trend among Jews in the United States. Chinese restaurants are always open on Christmas. Merry Jewish Christmas

42. kebda

(kib deh) - كبدة - liver, usually served in little sandwiches, fried with lemon and onion. Sometimes called kebda Eskandrani.

43. khalas

(kha laas) - خلاص - finished, done, empty, all-gone, totally screwed: e.g. - "el-Shay khalas [the tea is all gone]." (alternate spellings: khalaas)

44. khaleej

(khaa leej) - الخليج - the Gulf, i.e. - the Persian/Arabian Gulf.

45. khaleeji

(khaa lee jee) - خليجي - a word used to describe anyone or anything from the Persian/Arabian Gulf, al-Khaleej. e.g. - "Man, khaleejis come here [to Egypt] and drive like maniacs," or "This is a traditional khaleeji dish."

46. Khamasin

(kha maa seen) - الخماسين - hot southern winds that occur in Egypt between the months of March, April and May. These winds generally bring along sandstorms of varying intensity. The name literally means "fifty," referring to the space of time over which these storms are generally predicted. Sometimes also pronounced: kham-seen.

47. kushari

(koo shay ree) - كشري - a carb festival consisting of rice, lentils, sometimes chick-peas, and pasta served with spicy tomato sauce and fried onions on the top. You can also sometimes get it with fried peppers or shawarma (either farakh or lahma) on the top.

48. kuwayis

(kwaay is) - كوايس - fine. This gets used for everything from "hina [here is] kuwayis" when directing a cabbie to "di [this] kuwayis awee [really fine]," to mean that something is really great.

49. laban

(la ban) - لبن - milk, sometimes yogurt

50. lahma

(laH ma) - لحم - meat. This term is used alternately to refer to both beef (lahma kandooz - لحم كندوز) and lamb (lahma Daani - لحم ضاني).

51. Linux

(lih nucks) - Linux is the umbrella term used to describe a great number of UNIX-like computer operating systems. The individual systems are referred to as "distributions" or "distros" and are quite varied in their application. Linux has come to be used on may different types of systems and processing architectures. It is used for both server and desktop applications, and has seen a great deal of advancement recently in the realm of embedded devices (i.e. - mobile phones, PDA's, portable media players, GPS devices, et al).

Linux is named for Linus Torvalds, who created it in 1991 and still develops the Linux kernel.

52. live-disk

A CD or DVD which has a fully-functioning computer operating system installed on it which can be booted at startup. On startup, the file system on the disk is used to boot the computer rather than the file system on the computer. This is an effective tool for diagnosing problems or recovering lost data.

53. ma assalaama

(ma'a as sa laa mah) - مع السلامة - Good bye.

54. mafeesh

(ma feesh) - ما فيهش - There is not... s.th. We say this to indicate the absence of something, i.e. - "Mafeesh 'ainab kaman [any more grapes]."

55. mafeeshed

(ma feesh'd) - This is a pidgin Americanization of "mafeesh" which is utilized by my American contemporaries to indicate that something has either run out, or is useless, or broken: i.e. - "Man, that bathroom was mafeeshed" or "The chips are mafeeshed." *Not to be confused with "mafeesh."* See also khalas.

56. mazbout

(maz boot) - مضبوط - perfect, even, just right. This is how you order you ahwa if you want it with sugar, but not too much sugar.

57. Mogamma

(moo gam ma') - مجمّع - the byzantine labyrinth of government offices located on Tahrir Square in downtown Cairo. This is the place where foreign residents go in order to renew their visas. For an apt comparison, see the descriptions of the Vogon ships and home-world in the writings of Douglas Adams.