# كيف: Kief, Kiffen, Кайф



## e.nevsky

Hello!

I just figured out, that these words:

Kief (english: resin glands of cannabis): en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kief
Kiffen (german: to smoke cannabis): en.wiktionary.org/wiki/kiffen
Кейф/Кайф (russian: relaxation / joy / drug influence): ru.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%B9%D1%84

all go back to the same arabic word كيف: en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%81

I looked it up in the dictionary, but I did not see anything related to drug usage or relaxation: wordreference.com/aren/%D9%83%D9%8A%D9%81
So my questions are:

Is it used figuratively in the sense of drug usage?
Is it an informal word?
According to online dictionaries it also traslates to "adaptation" and "how". Are all three meanings related to each other?
Can كيف also mean "changing perception" or "changing the way you look at things" or maybe "changing the attitude"?

Unfortunately, I do not speak arabic, so I would be very thankful if you replied in english.
Thank you very much!

Erich.

p.s. There are also descendants in french and afrikaans, but I do not speak these languages.


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## Hemza

Hello, and welcome on this forum!!

I don't know much about "kif" in standard Arabic, but I know that it's used in (some) dialects of Arabic to speak about "Cannabis". In Standard Arabic (as well as dialects), "kayfa" (كيف) means "how", so I think that may be, there is a relation with "the way you look at things", which is influenced by cannabis. So may be, the name "kif" for Cannabis comes from "how we look at things" and the fact that Cannabis changes it. Of course, it's only hypothesis, I'm not sure at all.


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## Moseley

The word probably has a proto-germanic and indo-european equivalent but something makes me doubt that it ties into Arabic....


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## Hemza

So if we suppose that it has no link with Arabic, it can be related with German languages, because I don't think in Latin languages, it exists (at least, in French).


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## barkoosh

Some references say that this non-standard meaning of "keif" (the state of ecstasy) is from a Turkish word which is derived from the Arabic for "How". This word came to represent the overall state of a person, since you generally ask, "How are you?". It also came to denote the state of ecstasy, merriment, or joy. Since cannabis causes such effect, some call it "keif".


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## إسكندراني

In Egyptian dialect - which is likely to have influenced ottoman turkish - الكيف=الهوى=Desire
يتكيف=to please one's desires (a verb contrived from the same word, kēf) - this could be used to mean 'get high'
على كيفك = as you please
It's worth noting that in Egyptian dialect the standard meaning (how) is never intended in any situation I can recall.

This could be coincidence, or the source of the words you mention. I can't say. Nor can I speak as an authority on 'drug slang' in any language, thank God for that.


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## akhooha

Moseley said:


> The word probably has a proto-germanic and indo-european equivalent but something makes me doubt that it ties into Arabic....


The word is definitely tied in with Arabic. See: http://www.almaany.com/home.php?language=arabic&word=الكيف&lang_name=English&type_word=2&dspl=0
and Hans Wehr, page 996: http://ejtaal.net/aa/#hw4=1009,ll=2...=973,ums=809,umj=735,ulq=1525,uqa=382,uqq=348


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## إسكندراني

Even in standard usage, كيف doesn't only mean how, but also 'to condition' via derivative verbs كيّف ، تكيّف - but to be clear the verbal noun alone (kayf) doesn't clearly hold this connotation in modern standard use.


e.nevsky said:


> Can كيف also mean "changing perception" or "changing the way you look at things" or maybe "changing the attitude"?


Yes.
تكييف الرأي العام = conditioning of public opinion
تكييف الهواء = air conditioning
تكييف الشعر = hair conditioning


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## akhooha

إسكندراني said:


> ... but to be clear the verbal noun alone (kayf) doesn't clearly hold this connotation in modern standard use....


إضافة إلى المرجعين المذكورتين سابقًا (المعاني وهانس ويهر) هناك مرجع ثالث يثبت على فصاحة كلمة [كَيْف]:ـ
كَيْف: 1ـ ابتهاج ، جَذَل ، سرور شديد
ـ معجم اللغة العربية المعاصرة ​


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## Treaty

akhooha said:


> إضافة إلى المرجعين المذكورتين سابقًا (المعاني وهانس ويهر) هناك مرجع ثالث يثبت على فصاحة كلمة [كَيْف]:ـ
> كَيْف: 1ـ ابتهاج ، جَذَل ، سرور شديد
> ـ معجم اللغة العربية المعاصرة ​



This meaning ("exaltation") of کیف is widely used in today Persian. In past, it was also used to suggest being exalted (and intoxicated) as a result of using drugs or alcohol, and so was used for the intoxicant or relaxing substances as well. A variant is کیفور _keyfūr_ (= exalted to a stupefied level).  I consider the same usage existed in [Ottoman] Turkish via which the word entered Russian.


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## إسكندراني

Nobody mentioned 'exaltation'; the quote describes 'delight'.


akhooha said:


> ـ معجم اللغة العربية ((*المعاصرة))ء* ​


أستبعد فصاحته أو وجوده في التراث، وحتى اليوم فهو ليس شائعا على أية حال وأشعر أنه عامي للغاية
على أية حال فالمعنى المراد موجود وموثق


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## e.nevsky

Thanks for the great contributions!

A russian wikipedia article says:


> Русское слово «кайф» произошло от арабского слова «кэйф» араб. كيف‎‎ — «время приятного безделья». Согласно Корану, праведники, попадая в рай, постоянно находятся в состоянии кэйфа.


English translation:


> The russian word "кайф" derives from the arabic word "кэйф", arab. كيف - "time of pleasent idleness". According to the Quran, in Jannah, righteous men are constantly in the state of "кэйф"



Can anybody comment on these two statements?

The same article quotes Osip Senkovsky, a Russian orientalist:


> «Путешественники, бывшие на Востоке, знают, сколь многосложное значение имеет выражение кейф. Отогнав прочь все заботы и помышления, развалившись небрежно, пить кофе и курить табак называется делать кейф. В переводе это можно было бы назвать наслаждаться успокоением».


What translates to:


> Travellers, who visited the east, know how diverse the meaning of kief can be. Driving away all worries and thoughts, jauntly sprawling out, drinking coffee and smoking tobacco means to kief. Translated, it could be called "to enjoy the peace of mind"



It makes the impression, that "to kief" was an important part of life, like the spanish siesta.


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## إسكندراني

> According to the Quran, in Jannah, righteous men are constantly in the state of "кэйф"


This is outright false; the word does not appear in the Qur'an, nor are people described to be 'high' - rather 'luxury/joy' is described.

I can't comment on the second one; word usage can be surprising if you move back 200 years.


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## Timesieve

إسكندراني said:


> In Egyptian dialect - which is likely to have influenced ottoman turkish - الكيف=الهوى=Desire
> يتكيف=to please one's desires (a verb contrived from the same word, kēf) - this could be used to mean 'get high'
> على كيفك = as you please



This seems very similar to the meaning in question. كيف is pronounce "kayf" in standard Arabic, "kēf" in most eastern dialects, and "kif" in most western dialects, which, combined with historical proximity, leads me to believe that "kief" as we pronounce it in English came from north Africa, where the term is used to refer to cannabis, as Hemza pointed out. It probably came to English through Spanish and/of French, but I do not know either of these languages well enough to speak to their usage of the word.

Seems like normal German phonological processes would have shortened the vowel to give us "kiffen." How is it pronounced in Russian? Both Russia and Germany had more contact with Turks that north Africans as far as I know. It would be cool if the word came into Europe separately from the east and the west.

In English, kief refers (as e.nevsky points out) only to the powdery trichomes, and not to the whole plant. Is this the case in any Arabic dialects?


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## Hemza

إسكندراني said:


> In Egyptian dialect - which is likely to have influenced ottoman turkish - الكيف=الهوى=Desire
> يتكيف=to please one's desires (a verb contrived from the same word, kēf) - this could be used to mean 'get high'
> على كيفك = as you please



It reminds me that once, I saw on a soap opera in Najdi dialect, the woman was saying: "manib ray7a al shughul, bkéfé". I suppose it as the same meaning as Egyptian dialect.


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## Zoghbi

> There are also descendants in *french* and afrikaans



It's true we have the verb _kiffer _(to love, to have fun,...) in the informal speak  so as german and russian (in the meaning).
We admit that it come from arabic but as an arabic speaker (algerian dialect) I don't know any word who can explain the origin of this verb, maybe it come from a mashreki dialect.
We say : يتكيّف = he smoke, from the word كيف (canabis).


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## إسكندراني

Hemza said:


> It reminds me that once, I saw on a soap opera in Najdi dialect, the woman was saying: "mub ray7a al shughul, bkéfé". I suppose it as the same meaning as Egyptian dialect.


I doubt there are any soaps in 'Najdi', these programmes are made in a Gulf dialect. But بكيفي sounds levantine!


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## Schem

I think 'keif' can actually refer to coffee in some of the Bedouin dialects here. Someone might have to back me up on this though.

And @Hemza/Iskandarani, bkaifi and its derivatives are used in both Najdi and Gulf Arabic.


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## Hemza

إسكندراني said:


> I doubt there are any soaps in 'Najdi', these programmes are made in a Gulf dialect. But بكيفي sounds levantine!



No, I'm SURE it was in Najdi because it was really easy to understand, while khaliji is hard for me. And they didn't pronounce "tch" like khaliji, so it was Najdi . It's called 
"من الاخر"



Schem said:


> I think 'keif' can actually refer to coffee in some of the Bedouin dialects here. Someone might have to back me up on this though.
> 
> And @Hemza/Iskandarani, bkaifi and its derivatives are used in both Najdi and Gulf Arabic.



Thanks, so I wasn't wrong ^^. Also, in Moroccan, some people say "kif" to say "7ashish", that's why I thought it could come from the fact that 7ashish (I never tried it and never will) can change the way we see things, so I see a relation with "how=kayf".


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