# All dialects: to cram/swot



## Ghabi

Context: (Ghabi telling Zaki) man, can't go out with you tonight, I've got to cram/swot for tomorrow's exam.

All dialects are welcome. Thanks in advance!


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## be.010

In Syrian: laazem *2bla3 l kətob (or lkətəb)*** mshaan l faHS bukra!!!!! (sounds like a perfect Syrian equivalent of student slang cram or swot)
يبصم is also fine


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## azeid

There are new expressions in Egyptian dialect used by students.
لازم أدح شوية عشان الامتحان بكرة
لازم أحرت شوية لحسن فيه امتحان بكرة


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## londonmasri

azeid said:


> There are new expressions in Egyptian dialect used by students.
> لازم أدح شوية عشان الامتحان بكرة
> لازم أحرت شوية لحسن فيه امتحان بكرة


 
Please put tashkeel azeid


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## Josh_

I have not heard either of these phrases before, but I have heard the verb حرت/حرث.  Here is my explanation based on that.

If أحرت is the word I am thinking of it is "_aHrit_" or "_aHrut_."  The masculine singular past tense is _Harat_, the present _yiHrit/yiHrut_.  The word is actually spelled with a ث in MSA, but as you know the ث often becomes a ت in Egyptian.  The denotative meaning is "plow" (I think you Brits spell it "plough") as in "to plow a field."  I can see a loose connection between this meaning and the meaning of "cram" as one "crams" dirt together, as it were, when plowing.

I have not heard the word دحّ before, but looked it up and found that the denotative meaning is something like "to toil" or "struggle."

The pronunciation is, "_daHH, yidiHH_."  First person present is "_adiHH_."  With this one, I can also see a loose connection with "cram" as one who crams has to struggle with the material.


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## Ghabi

be.010 said:


> In Syrian: laazem *2bla3 l kətob (or lkətəb)*** mshaan l faHS bukra!!!!! (sounds like a perfect Syrian equivalent of student slang cram or swot)
> يبصم is also fine



What's the literal meaning of 2bla3, I wonder?



Josh_ said:


> The denotative meaning is "plow" (I think you Brits spell it "plough") as in "to plow a field." I can see a loose connection between this meaning and the meaning of "cram" as one "crams" dirt together, as it were, when plowing.



Hehe, I think you also say "to plow through a book" in English (in my native tongue we say "to hoe a book", also an agricultural metaphor).


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## be.010

Ghabi said:


> What's the literal meaning of 2bla3, I wonder?


Literally, to *swallow* books!


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## Josh_

Ghabi said:


> Hehe, I think you also say "to plow through a book" in English (in my native tongue we say "to hoe a book", also an agricultural metaphor).


That's right.  I didn't even think of that. That's another way to think about it -- when one crams for a test he/she has to plow through the book.


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## azeid

londonmasri said:


> Please put tashkeel azeid


أَدِح - أَحْرِت
For the one who is giving too much attention to his schoolwork,you can say دَحِّيح -حَرِيّت كتب-موس مذاكرة


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## Ghabi

be.010 said:


> Literally, to *swallow* books!



Wonderful word! I used to like the English word _gulp_ very much (since its sound imitates the action so closely), but now _2bla3_ sounds even nicer!



Josh_ said:


> That's right.  I didn't even think of that. That's another way to think about it -- when one crams for a test he/she has to plow through the book.



BiZ-ZabT!



azeid said:


> أَدِح - أَحْرِت
> For the one who is giving too much attention to his schoolwork,you can say دَحِّيح -حَرِيّت كتب-موس مذاكرة



Bookworms/dweebs/swotters (what are the latest slang words anyway?) are everywhere! Thanks for the bonus vocab (although the forms surprise me a bit, as I was expecting the فعّال pattern)!


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## londonmasri

> *موس* مذاكرة


 
Is this one a mouse?  Or something else?


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## Ghabi

londonmasri said:


> Is this one a mouse?  Or something else?



Sounds like a perfect antidote to "gym rat". (you say that in UK?)


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## azeid

londonmasri said:


> Is this one a mouse?  Or something else?


مُوس = razor blade
Sharp in studying like razor blade.Does it make sense?


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## habibimike

If I remember correctly in lebanon we sometimes used to say: " lazem ensumm mechan el fahs boukra" and a good student would be: "summeem"...


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## Ghabi

azeid said:


> مُوس = razor blade
> Sharp in studying like razor blade.Does it make sense?



Hehe, it makes sense to me, since in my native tongue we say "to shave a book (including horse-racing forms)".



habibimike said:


> If I remember correctly in lebanon we sometimes used to say: " lazem ensumm mechan el fahs boukra" and a good student would be: "summeem"...



To poison yourself? Um, I know study is bad... (it may sound weird, but in my mother tongue the words "to read/study" and "poison" actually happen to be homophones...)


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## azeid

habibimike said:


> If I remember correctly in lebanon we sometimes used to say: " lazem ensumm mechan el fahs boukra" and a good student would be: "summeem"...





Ghabi said:


> To poison yourself? Um, I know study is bad... (it may sound weird, but in my mother tongue the words "to read/study" and "poison" actually happen to be homophones...)


I think he means يصم الكتاب and it means that read it from the cover to cover "يحفظ الكتاب عن ظهر قلب" and it may be used to mean reading it without understanding, just to fill the answers in the exam paper.
يِصُم - صَمَّام
هو صمام 
At least, this is the way it is used in Egypt and i think he means that.


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## Ghabi

I see! The basic meaning of the root seems to be "to close/shut up (something)" (hence the derived words of "deaf" and "cork"), so it's not far from the English _cram_ ("to pack tight").


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## cherine

Ghabi said:


> Bookworms/dweebs/swotters (what are the latest slang words anyway?) are everywhere! Thanks for the bonus vocab (although the forms surprise me a bit, as I was expecting the فعّال pattern)!


I don't have any more suggestions to give, specially that I've been away from this "field" for so many years now. 
But I'd like to comment on the pattern fa33iil and fa3iil:
In colloquial Egyptian, just like in fuS7a, we do use the fa33al as a صيغة مبالغة and also fa3iil, although most of the words that come to my mind now, following the fa3iil wazn, are neologisms, like غتيت for someone who is very ghetet غِتِت (a nag, a nuisance(?)...).
fa33iil is also used صَمِّيم (درجة مبالغة من "صمّام")، دحيح there's also شَغِّيل which means a very hardworker.

It's very amusing for me to hear any of those new words and note how much they follow the patterns of fuS7a. 

P.S. If anyone's interested in discussing any of these words, please open a new thread.


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## be.010

We also use the صم rooted forms, but the different part is that in colloquial we always link the ب to it (i.e. بصمّ), and treat it like a root letter!!! So we'd say "byi7faZ baSem," so he is "بيبصم" and "baSSiim"


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