# MSA/All dialects: accent rug, decorative rug



## elroy

Hi!  For "accent rug" or "decorative rug" I would use سجّادة منظر in Palestinian Arabic.  What would you use in MSA and/or your dialect?  I can't think of anything satisfactory in MSA.


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## Mahaodeh

Maybe for decorative rug, سجادة للزينة as opposed to one that is actually used as a rug or سجادة للاستعمال. I assume you mean here the small ones that are often hung on the wall and not laid on the floor, the ones laid on the floor even if you don't particularly need them are still used as rugs.

On the other hand, if you mean a rug that has particular colours to complement the overall decoration of the room and is actually used, then maybe you could say سجادة مزيّنة.


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## elroy

Well, you can put them on the wall or on the floor; the point is that they serve a decorative purpose, not a practical one.

سجادة مزيّنة doesn't sound natural to me; it sounds kind of forced.  سجادة للزينة sounds better but I still don't like it a whole lot.  زينة to me sounds like decorations for a party or event (this may be a dialectal influence?), not decorations in the sense of fixed decorations in a room, for example. 

My first thought was سجادة إضافية, but I don't think that's clear, because you could have an additional functional rug.  Then I thought of سجادة كمالية, but I'm not sure I like that (I normally use كمالية to mean nonessential, which isn't the core meaning here).

 Maybe سجادة ديكور??? I think that might actually work!  

It's reasonably common on Google.

Here's a forum thread with سجادة ديكور للجدار as the title: سجاده ديكور للجدار
(The addition of للجدار implies that they could be placed elsewhere as well.) 

Here's a thread where it's used for a circular floor rug: سجادة ديكور للمنازل  بطريقة رائعة


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## Mahaodeh

I think سجادة ديكور would be the best translation here. ديكور is often used to mean 'decoration' in MSA as well as in many dialects, although it's also used to mean 'interior design' but I think the whole context is in fact about interior design, isn't it?



elroy said:


> سجادة مزيّنة doesn't sound natural to me; it sounds kind of forced. سجادة للزينة sounds better but I still don't like it a whole lot. زينة to me sounds like decorations for a party or event



Come to think of it, I think you're right. Even سجادة مزينة sounds sort of like it was decorated for a party or something! Like sticking paper ribbons and balloons to it 
In Iraqi Arabic, it might even be misunderstood as the carpet being shaved  (they use the verb زيّن to mean حلق in IA, for hair and/or beard).

That was a bad suggestion.


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## tounsi51

In TA we will use زربية or كليم


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## elroy

@Mahaodeh, oh, I thought you meant مزيِّنة, not مزيَّنة!


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## rayloom

سجاد زينة seems also to be widely used, a bit less than سجاد ديكور.


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## elroy

rayloom said:


> سجاد زينة seems also to be widely used


 Might be due to heedless one-to-one translation. 

What would you say in your dialect?


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## rayloom

I'm not sure 
I'll check!

Edit: So I checked and we do call them سجاد الزينة, or by their country of origin, since it implies it's used for decorative purposes.


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## momai

Except the fact I've never seen one on a wall in my hometown in my whole life, I can't remember reading any standard name for it. If I would ever need to call it anything then it would probably be سداجة للتعليق عل حيطان or simply سداجة حيطان.


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## Mahaodeh

Well, I call it سجادة من هاي اللي بتتعلق. Obviously rugs were not used in this way traditionally and probably not historically either hence we don't have a name for them. Up to my knowledge, rugs were always functional traditionally even if we do decorate them (in the sense that they are colourful and beautiful). But since they are becoming common, we might as well come up with a name for them. It's better than expressing it with a whole sentence!


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## Alfaaz

Would تزیینی/تحسینی/زخرفی) سجادۃ) be considered appropriate translations in Arabic or would the three words not be suitable for this context?


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## cherine

I think we can say سجادة زينة sijjaadit ziina.
I found a few instances of سجاد زخرفي sijjaad zukhrufi on Google. But I think سجاد تحسيني would sound very strange.


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## Alfaaz

cherine said:
			
		

> I found a few instances of سجاد زخرفي sijjaad zukhrufi on Google. But I think سجاد تحسيني would sound very strange.


 Thanks! If appropriate for this thread, could you please explain the difference in meaning and usage of the three words (تزیینی/تحسینی/زخرفی)? In which contexts would each one normally be used?


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## Mahaodeh

تزيين is to make something look nice. It can be decoration or it can be wearing jewellery or planting flowers or whatever is done for the purpose of adding an aesthetic property. It does not imply that it was originally ugly and it can be used basically in any context. In many dialects it also means adding temporary party decorations such as ribbons and balloons.

تحسين is to make something become better. It can refer to aesthetics but the general idea is functional not aesthetic. Hence, this is used mainly in functional contexts.

زخرفة is a pattern. In the most literal sense it is about having a small drawing or carving repeated to create a certain pattern. It's not aesthetic per se but it is visual and generally one would create a pattern for aesthetic reasons. Figuratively it can be used to mean تزيين since adding patterns is adding an aesthetic property. Sometimes it is used to express that something has been overdone in terms of aesthetics and would thus become a negative trait.


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## Alfaaz

Thanks for the detailed and informative post!


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