# All dialects: forehead



## elroy

Hello!

In Palestinian Arabic we use صَباح for "forehead" (جبين is used as well).

Do any other dialects use صَباح with this meaning?

(By the way, there's no confusion with "morning," because "morning" is صُبُح except in the fixed expressions صباح الخير/صباح النور.)

Thanks!


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## Mahaodeh

I'm not sure that this is used all over Palestine, none of my relatives use it, including those that are still living in the West Bank today. They all seem to use جبين. I also never heard it in Jordan, which is highly affected by Palestinian Arabic. But then again my experience is with the dialect spoken in the West Bank and Jerusalem.

However, since you are asking about how other dialects use it, in Iraq it's called قُصة.


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## elroy

Mahaodeh said:


> I'm not sure that this is used all over Palestine


 I never said it was. 

It's what I and my family have always said; it may be regional Galilean.


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## Ectab

Mahaodeh said:


> However, since you are asking about how other dialects use it, in Iraq it's called قُصة.


Not قُصة (quSah) this means story, at least in my dialect, we say كصة (guSSah) for forehead, from Arabic قُصة means, according to almaany, the hair of the forehead.


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## Mahaodeh

I know how it's pronounced, but it's more correctly written with a qaaf than a kaaf, since this is the origin of the word.


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## djara

In TA, depending on the region, forehead is جبين (jbeen) or جبهة (jabha).
قُصة (qussa, gussa) is hair over the forehead


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## elroy

Thanks for the responses!  I'm going to assume from the low number of responses that صَباح for "forehead" is most likely a Palestinian (or Galilean) quirk.


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## cherine

Yes, I think it's a particularity of your dialect 
In Egypt, we call it جبين gebiin or gabha جبهة. (we have a proverb/saying: المكتوب ع الجبين لازم تشوفه العين = what's written (i.e. pre-destined/fated) will surely happen).
The word oSSa قُصّة means bangs/fringe.


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## elroy

Before this thread I didn't know that any dialect used جبهة with this meaning!  In Palestinian Arabic I've only come across جبهة with a political meaning ("front").

And in Palestinian Arabic قصّة isn't used with any meaning related to the head, to my knowledge.  The only meaning I've come across other than "story" is a paved stretch of ground in front of someone's house (I don't know of a specific word for this in English), and even that is regional (in Jerusalem we say مدّة for that).

"Bangs" in Palestinian Arabic is غرّة.


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## cherine

elroy said:


> Before this thread I didn't know that any dialect used جبهة with this meaning!  In Palestinian Arabic I've only come across جبهة with a political meaning ("front").


Yes, جبهة has this meaning too, maybe more related to war جبهة القتال. And I believe gebiin is more common for forehead.


> And in Palestinian Arabic قصّة isn't used with any meaning related to the head, to my knowledge.  The only meaning I've come across other than "story" is a paved stretch of ground in front of someone's house (I don't know of a specific word for this in English), and even that is regional (in Jerusalem we say مدّة for that).


Interesting.
For story we say eSSa/qeSSa (yes, one of the words where we keep the ق). I'm not sure about the paved stretched thing because it would only be used it rural areas and I can't remember if I've heard a word for it before.


> "Bangs" in Palestinian Arabic is غرّة.


Well, that's فصيح !


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## elroy

cherine said:


> Yes, جبهة has this meaning too, maybe more related to war جبهة القتال.


 There are some Palestinian political groups with جبهة in their name, like الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين.


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## ahmedcowon

We also use the word قورة in Egypt for forehead.


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## cherine

Yes! How could I forget this? But maybe because I haven't heard it in a while.
By the way, just to add a little info, when we attach a pronoun to the word uura, the first vowel is shortened and changed: orti, orto, oret'ha, ortak...


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## djara

cherine said:


> when we attach a pronoun to the word uura, the first vowel is shortened and changed: orti, orto, oret'ha, ortak...


Sounds very close to غرّة doesn't it?
In my local Tunisian dialect, غرّة is used for a white spot on a horse's forehead.


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## apricots

djara said:


> In my local Tunisian dialect, غرّة is used for a white spot on a horse's forehead.



This is called a flash in English if you're curious.


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## Mahaodeh

djara said:


> In my local Tunisian dialect, غرّة is used for a white spot on a horse's forehead.



I read once that this meaning is the origin of the meaning of bangs. Anyhow, if you check classical dictionaries, you would find this meaning, but you would not find the meaning of bangs so it seems to be a later usage.


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## cherine

True. غرة أصلاً تعني البياض في جبهة الفهرس .


djara said:


> Sounds very close to غرّة doesn't it?


Not really, there's the غ-ق and the doubled ر unless you're pronouncing one or both words differently than we do.


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## Mahaodeh

I'm not saying that they may have the same origin, I would just like to point out that the switch between غ and ق does happen in some dialects.


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## cherine

Yes, I know this, and I was going to agree that they're similar, but then I remembered the doubled r, so I had to disagree.


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## djara

cherine said:


> Not really, there's the غ-ق and the doubled ر unless you're pronouncing one or both words differently than we do.


It was a shortcut. I meant that if a Palestinian added a possessive pronoun to غرة it would sound close to Egyptian in your example. orti/ghorti, orto/ghorto, oret'ha/ghoret'ha, ortak/ghortak... Only one sound would be different and as Mahaodeh said "the switch between غ and ق does happen in some dialects"


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## elroy

djara said:


> I meant that if a Palestinian added a possessive pronoun to غرة it would sound close to Egyptian in your example. orti/ghorti, orto/ghorto, oret'ha/ghoret'ha, ortak/ghortak...


 The r is doubled even in the possessive: ghurrti, ghurrto, ghurritha, ghurrtak.


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## Mahaodeh

elroy said:


> Before this thread I didn't know that any dialect used جبهة with this meaning! In Palestinian Arabic I've only come across جبهة with a political meaning ("front").



According to Lisaan Al Arab, جبهة is a forehead. It also means ما استُقبِل من الشيء, probably related to forehead. It also has to do with the verb جابه = to face (in a quarrel).

In MSA, it has both those meanings, in addition to the meaning of front of a battle and a political entity.



elroy said:


> There are some Palestinian political groups with جبهة in their name, like الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين.



Note how this is translated to: Popular *Front* for the Liberation of Palestine.

In Iraqi Arabic, جبهة is also used for forehead although guSSa is more common. It's also used to mean the front part of a plot of land that is facing the street as well as the front of a building.



djara said:


> قُصة (qussa, gussa) is hair over the forehead



Just a guess, this might be the origin of the meaning of forehead in Iraq. It might originally have meant 'the part of the hair that is _cut_ above the eyes.

In Iraqi Arabic, the hair over the forehead is قُذْلة.


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## water&sky

Can you please write these for me in Lebanese Arabic too: 

_Forehead
_


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## wriight

Forehead - jbi:n جبين


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