# All dialects/MSA: Fat دهن، شحم، دسم



## dakaplo

Hello,

When I was in Morocco a few years ago, I learned the word شحمة/شحم for the fat in meat. Recently, I was talking about cooking with a Syrian and an Egyptian, and when I used this word, they didn't understand, and told me it was called دسم . In MSA class, I learned that fat was called دهن , and all three words are in the dictionary meaning both "fat" and "grease."

I would appreciate your help in clearing up this culinary mystery. Are the words دهن , دسم and شحم synonyms that vary by region, or do they mean slightly different things?

Thank you for your help!


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## elroy

In Palestinian Arabic:

We use دهن to refer to meat fat in general, and we use شحمة to refer to a specific piece/chunk of meat fat.  We don't use دسم to refer to meat fat.


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## Hemza

In Morocco as in standard Arabic we use "شحم/شحمة" for meat fat. But we do not use دهن a lot although when used, it refers to "fat" in general. Some people may call oil fat, ادام (which basically means, a plate with a lot of sauce, so a bit fatty). And some others say "شي مزيت" to means "oily, fatty" (in Morocco). We do not use دسم to my knowlodge.


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## dakaplo

Thanks for your responses! It sounds like دهن is the most general word and can refer to any kind of fat in food—is that right?



elroy said:


> We don't use دسم to refer to meat fat.



Do you use دسم to refer to non-meat fats? Such as dairy fat? (I remember hearing skim milk called حليب خالي الدسم )



Hemza said:


> In Morocco as in standard Arabic we use "شحم/شحمة" for meat fat.



Can شحم also refer to non-meat fat, or is it specifically meat fat?


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## elroy

In Palestinian Arabic, دسم is used for dairy fat and دهن/شحمة is used for meat fat.  دهون is the general word for "fats" in MSA, and that's what's used in PA when you have to refer to other kinds of fats, like plant fats.


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## dakaplo

elroy said:


> In Palestinian Arabic, دسم is used for dairy fat and دهن/شحمة is used for meat fat.  دهون is the general word for "fats" in MSA, and that's what's used in PA when you have to refer to other kinds of fats, like plant fats.



Got it, thanks. I may have misremembered hearing meat fat called دسم , or maybe the usage in Egyptian Arabic differs from Palestinian Arabic?


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## djara

In Tunisian شحم (sh7am) is animal fat. It is also used for industrial grease.
شحمة (sha7ma) is a chunk of animal fat.
The verb شحّم is only used for greasing mechanical parts and, figuratively, for giving bakshish.
The adjective مشحّم (msha77am) is used for fat meat and animals.
For greasy food we say ميدّم (myaddim)
دسم is only used in MSA.


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## tounsi51

In addition to djara message, we don't use دهن for fat because it's the word we use for "paint" (pronounced dohn)


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## dakaplo

djara said:


> The verb شحّم is only used for greasing mechanical parts and, figuratively, for giving bakshish.


How would you use شحّم in the figurative sense in a sentence? Is this right?
شحّمته باش يساعدنا 'I gave him bakshish so he would help us.'



djara said:


> For greasy food we say ميدّم (myaddim)


Is there an associated noun that means grease?



tounsi51 said:


> In addition to djara message, we don't use دهن for fat because it's the word we use for "paint" (pronounced dohn)


In dialects like Palestinian where دهن is used for fat in food, is paint still called دهن or is there another word?


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## djara

dakaplo said:


> شحّمته باش يساعدنا 'I gave him bakshish so he would help us.'


Could be. But the more idiomatic expression would be شحّمتلو يدّو باش يعاونّا 


dakaplo said:


> Is there an associated noun that means grease?


 Normally it is إدام idaam, but it is rarely used unless regionally.


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## elroy

dakaplo said:


> In dialects like Palestinian where دهن is used for fat in food, is paint still called دهن or is there another word?


 In Palestinian "paint" is دهان with an ا, or طراشة.


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## Hemza

dakaplo said:


> Can شحم also refer to non-meat fat, or is it specifically meat fat?



It is specifically meat fat. Some people when talking in a very vulgar way of girls may say "شحمة" or "شحيمة" to talk about their body.


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## Startinov

djara said:


> In Tunisian شحم (sh7am) is animal fat. It is also used for industrial grease.
> شحمة (sha7ma) is a chunk of animal fat.
> The verb شحّم is only used for greasing mechanical parts and, figuratively, for giving bakshish.
> The adjective مشحّم (msha77am) is used for fat meat and animals.
> For greasy food we say ميدّم (myaddim)
> دسم is only used in MSA.



It's exactly the same thing in Morroco 

for greasy food we say ميدّم  but also مدسم ..


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## dakaplo

djara said:


> Could be. But the more idiomatic expression would be شحّمتلو يدّو باش يعاونّا


I see, so it's more like "to grease someone's hand." (And I was unsure if 'to help' in Tunisian was عاون as in Moroccan or ساعد as in MSA - should've guessed the Moroccan word!)


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## Hemza

dakaplo said:


> I see, so it's more like "to grease someone's hand." (And I was unsure if 'to help' in Tunisian was عاون as in Moroccan or ساعد as in MSA - should've guessed the Moroccan word!)



Actually, "عاون" is not a "Moroccan verb", it's an MSA verb used in Morocco (and not only) .


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## Interprete

dakaplo said:


> Got it, thanks. I may have misremembered hearing meat fat called دسم , or maybe the usage in Egyptian Arabic differs from Palestinian Arabic?


Hello, 
I'm not a native but in Egypt I never heard دسم for meat fat, I actually never heard it at all (only read on milk bottles like you)  but this may be due to a lack of exposure too...


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## cherine

We do use dasam to mean fat, but mostly as an adjective (pronounced dasem): أكلة دَسِمة or أكلة تقيلة. The word dasam is also used for the fat layer on a cold soup اقشط الدَسَم قبل ما تسخَّن الشوربة remove the fat before heating the soup.

For fat (I mean the fat/grease in meat) we use the word دهن (pronounced dehn, and also dehna دهنة).
Something greasy is medahnen مِدَهْنِن

There's also the word إدام mentioned by Hemza, but I've only heard it from a couple of people, so I don't know how common it is or where it is used.

The word شحم is used for the grease used to grease doors and the like. There's also تشحيم العربية but as I don't drive I'm not sure what it means exactly, maybe greasing or oiling the car 

The word دِهان means paint, the same as buuya بوية or بُهْية (I think it's taken from Turkish or Persian).


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## elroy

cherine said:


> We do use dasam to mean fat, but mostly as an adjective (pronounced dasem): أكلة دَسِمة or أكلة تقيلة.


 We use دَسَم for dairy fat and دِسِم (different vowels) as the adjective ("fatty" or "rich" in reference to food). 


cherine said:


> Something greasy is medahnen مِدَهْنِن


 We say مِدْهِن or مْزَيِّت or ملان زيت.


cherine said:


> The word شحم is used for the grease used to grease doors and the like.


 I'm not sure what we use for this, but I don't think it's شحم.


cherine said:


> There's also تشحيم العربية but as I don't drive I'm not sure what it means exactly, maybe greasing or oiling the car


 We say تزييت for this.  It's "lubricating" in English.


cherine said:


> The word دِهان means paint, the same as buuya بوية or بُهْية (I think it's taken from Turkish or Persian).


 We use بويا too, but we pronounce it "bōya."  It's Turkish.


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## tounsi51

Aha, interesting

In TA (at least in my city) we call the chameleon ام البوية (oum el bouya), bouya being a loan from Turkish


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## cherine

elroy said:


> We use دَسَم for dairy fat


We have كامل الدسم and خالي من الدسم for full-fat and skimmed milk. But I don't think we use the word دَسَم alone/as a stand alone word.


> We say مِدْهِن or مْزَيِّت or ملان زيت.


We also have مزيت, pronounced mezayyet.


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## Startinov

> We also have مزيت, pronounced mezayyet.



also in Morocco, we use this word


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