# MSA/All dialects: to give/shoot someone a dirty look



## Tilmeedh

Hi all--for 'dirty look', WordReference suggests

(نظرة امتعاض، نظرة استنكار، نظرة غضب),

but doesn't clarify in the Arabic-English section how those three options differ in meaning or usage.

English has a few relevant expressions:

- 'to give/shoot someone an angry look', 'to give/shoot someone a dirty look' (fairly mild)
- 'to give someone the evil eye', 'to look daggers at someone' (very strong)

What would some good equivalents be in MSA and the dialects?

Thanks in advance.


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## tounsi51

Tunisian Arabic,

يكحل


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## analeeh

Those are all literal renditions: 'a look of displeasure/annoyance', 'a look of contempt/disapproval', 'a look of anger'.


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## djara

tounsi51 said:


> Tunisian Arabic, يكحل


There may be a misunderstanding here. Dirty look means " a facial expression of disapproval, disgust, or anger " while  يكحل means : (for a boy) to look intently and appreciatively (?) at a girl, mostly a form of street harrassment.
I think the closest word for dirty look in Tunisian Arabic is قحرة (gaḥra) and to shoot a dirty look is يقحر (yagḥar)


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## Tilmeedh

djara said:


> يكحل means : (for a boy) to look intently and appreciatively (?) at a girl, mostly a form of street harrassment.



A good English equivalent might be 'to ogle'.


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## Abu Talha

Hans Wehr gives حدجه بِبَصَره/بِنَظَره as "to look sharply at someone".

There is also رماه ببصره.

Both become بأبصارهم with a plural doer.


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## cherine

In MSA, we say نظر له شَذَرًا, and we also use it in Egyptian Arabic: بَصّ له شذرًا (of course we pronounce the ذ like ز: baSSelo shazaran).


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## fenakhay

In Morocco, خَنْزَر (ḵanzar), يِخَنْزَر (yiḵanzar)


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## momai

cherine said:


> In MSA, we say نظر له شَذَرًا, and we also use it in Egyptian Arabic: بَصّ له شذرًا (of course we pronounce the ذ like ز: baSSelo shazaran).


It is actually written with zay not thal hence your Egyptian pronunciation is also "correct".
In Syrian we would say زورو zawaro


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## Tilmeedh

It's interesting that Syrian has a one-word equivalent for the English phrase.

What's the etymology of

'zawar'?

I doubt it's related to the MSA verb

*(زَوِرَ):*



> - Have or take a slope - incline; slant; slope *(source*)


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## cherine

momai said:


> It is actually written with zay not thal hence your Egyptian pronunciation is also "correct".
> In Syrian we would say زورو zawaro


Oh! Is this a case of my over-correcting the dialect usage?!   Thank you for the correction, Momai 

And I remembered another verb: yozghor يزغر which is used with a preposition: زغر له, and it is from fuS7a as well, from Hans Wehr it means "to eye, leer".


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## djara

cherine said:


> And I remembered another verb: yozghor يزغر which is used with a preposition: زغر له,


In Tunisia, we say يخزر/يغزر and it means to look at. From وخَزَرْتُ فلانا خَزْراً: نظرت إليه بلحاظ عيني. قال: لا تَخْزُرِ القوم شزراً عن معارضةٍ (Kitab al 3ayn)


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## Hemza

fenakhay said:


> In Morocco, خَنْزَر (ḵanzar), يِخَنْزَر (yiḵanzar)


خزر/يخزر is also used this way I think. And I think that we also make a distinction between يشوف/يرى/يخزر without a suffix which is kind of neutral and when we make the verb followed by في which imply in a bad manner or at least, in a non pleasant/wrong one (يشوف فيا for instance).

There is also شبح/يشبح, باصر/يباصر as well as رعى/يرعى (to look at/to observe) but I don't know if it may be used to mean "dirty look".


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## Tilmeedh

cherine said:


> And I remembered another verb: yozghor يزغر which is used with a preposition: زغر له, and it is from fuS7a as well, from Hans Wehr it means "to eye, leer".



In English, 'to leer at someone' can mean

1) (ينظر بشهوانيّة إلى شخص)

or

2) (ينظر بخبث إلى شخص).

For me, the primary meaning of this phrase is (1).

Is the Egyptian term

(يزغر ل)

equivalent to (1) or (2) in MSA?


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## fenakhay

Hemza said:


> خزر/يخزر is also used this way I think. And I think that we also make a distinction between يشوف/يرى/يخزر without a suffix which is kind of neutral and when we make the verb followed by في which imply in a bad manner or at least, in a non pleasant/wrong one (يشوف فيا for instance).


Maybe this is regional, but خزر, for me, means "to look at" with no bad connotation (for example, خزر فخاك (look at your brother) or خزر في (look at me)).


Hemza said:


> There is also شبح/يشبح, باصر/يباصر as well as رعى/يرعى (to look at/to observe) but I don't know if it may be used to mean "dirty look".


I've never heard of these. Where are they said?


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## Hemza

fenakhay said:


> Maybe this is regional, but خزر, for me, means "to look at" with no bad connotation (for example, خزر فخاك (look at your brother) or خزر في (look at me)).


You definitely know better than me.


> I've never heard of these. Where are they said?


في الصحراء


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## cherine

Tilmeedh said:


> In English, 'to leer at someone' can mean
> 
> 1) (ينظر بشهوانيّة إلى شخص)
> 
> or
> 
> 2) (ينظر بخبث إلى شخص).
> 
> For me, the primary meaning of this phrase is (1).
> 
> Is the Egyptian term (يزغر ل) equivalent to (1) or (2) in MSA?


It's neither, actually  It's to look in a menacing way.


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## Tilmeedh

cherine said:


> It's neither, actually  It's to look in a menacing way.



Are there any good equivalents in MSA?

The English phrases 'to glare at someone' and 'to glower at someone' come to mind, but I'm not sure if they're good translations of the Egyptian verb.


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## Derakhshan

We have يخِزّ or يقِزّ

قَزّاني قَزّ


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## cherine

Tilmeedh said:


> Are there any good equivalents in MSA?


نظر شزرًا إلى naZar shazaran ilaa.


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## momai

Tilmeedh said:


> It's interesting that Syrian has a one-word equivalent for the English phrase.
> 
> What's the etymology of
> 
> 'zawar'?
> 
> I doubt it's related to the MSA verb
> 
> *(زَوِرَ):*


It's mentioned in Lissan Alarab under z-w-r. 


> ناقة زَوْرَة: تنظر بِمُؤْخِرِ عينها لشدّتها وحدّتها


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