# Habibi حبيبي



## Rob625

Can someone tell me what 'habibi' means, and what language it is? No context, I'm afraid; I have only come across it used as a name, but I think it does mean something.


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## francois

It means 'I love you' in Arabic language. But I think it's one of the several wyas you can say it.


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## piloya

I've been told it also means "darling" in arabic

Any arab speaker around?


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## CLEMENTINE

Hello

Some of my friends say sometime "habibi, brother" when meeting a friend - that would means something like "my dear old friend"


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## cuchuflete

Hi Rob,

Years ago I studied some medieval Spanish/Arabic love poetry.  The word was used frequently in those poems.  I was taught that it meant "beloved one" in the Arabic of the time.  Here is a modern translation of a popular song.  It seems that the meaning has endured for hundreds of years.

http://www.shira.net/nourelain.htm

cheers,
Cuchu


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## Janna82

Hi everyone,
that's true what has just been said, habibi (which is not pronounced H, it's another pronounciation in Arabic) generates from the word love, so basically yes it means my beloved one, but it's not just for like 2 inlove, it can be said with a mother and her son..... etc, please note that in Arabic there are not seperate words for the verbs like & love, they are the same, so we would say the father loves his child & the girlfriend loves her boyfriend! Hope that helped   
Cheers


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## Rob625

Thanks to all!


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## Whodunit

Janna82 said:
			
		

> Hi everyone,
> that's true what has just been said, habibi (which is not pronounced H, it's another pronounciation in Arabic) generates from the word love, so basically yes it means my beloved one, but it's not just for like 2 inlove, it can be said with a mother and her son..... etc, please note that in Arabic there are not seperate words for the verbs like & love, they are the same, so we would say the father loves his child & the girlfriend loves her boyfriend! Hope that helped
> Cheers



Let me put it in two pieces, Paradise   :

حبيب —> darling, lover
ـي —> my

And here you can see how to pronounce this special H:


> ح is like a whispered, spitting English 'h'. If you say 'hello' and don't want to say it aloud, but emphasized, you can get the ح-sound [I transcribe it with ħ]. Or run up huge stairs and then say "hello", you'll get this beautiful sound.


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## ayed

Yup , Whodunit. You are correct or try the following way:
push your Adam's apple back as you pronouncing "H".You almost get it right.
Thank you 
حبيبي 
love : حبيب
my:ي
In English , my love 
In Arabic, love my


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## JLanguage

^Hebrew borrowed Habibi from Arabic as חַבִּיבִּי meaning my friend, buddy, man. and חָבִיב(Haviv) is also a Hebrew adjective meaning pleasant or friendly, and noun meaning darling.


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## Whodunit

ayed said:
			
		

> Yup , Whodunit. You are correct or try the following way:
> push your Adam's apple back as you pronouncing "H".You almost get it right.



Have you ever heard it pronounced like ه or خ or even like ع?


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## ayed

Hello , whodunit.
Yes, by Indian , Pakistan people and Phillipino.


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## Whodunit

What sound did you hear by them?


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## Ali Al-Majnooni

Hi all,

Whodunit, Ayed means the هـ sound, the sound that exists in English. Many speakers of languages that don't have the ح sound of Arabic pronounce it as if it is /h/. This can be traced to the fact that both sounds have the same place of articulation.
_Habibi_ is said to male receivers. For female receivers, _Habibti _or _Habibeti_ should be used. One more point: Not always is that word used to express love. You can say it while speaking to everyone to show friendliness.


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## Whodunit

Ah well. Is the female ending ـتي? I've always thought that the 1st singular in English 'my' is invariable in Arabic, i.e. no difference between male and female. Ah, now I got you: You mean حبيتة is the female form and the ة gets an extra pronounced -t, so "habibti" is in written Arabic: حبيبتي, isn't it?


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## Ali Al-Majnooni

Exactly, whodunit.

There is a difference between male and female adjectives and nouns. This is simply why Habibi is different from Habibti.

Look, I will provide an example:

_Katib_ is the Arabic word for writer ( male )
_Katibeh_ is the Arabic word for writer ( female )

By the same token, _Habib_ means ( beloved male )
Similarly, _Habibeh_ means ( beloved female )

So, when trying to say [ my writer ] you can use _Katibi_ for males, and _Katibti_ or _Katibeti_ for females. the same thing applies to _Habibi_ and _Habibti_.

Now, can you do this exercise:
Knowing that _Khadim_ means a male server and _Kadimeh_ means a female server or maid, Give the equivalent Arabic expressions for these phrases:
1. my server
2. my maid

Good Luck.


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## elroy

To sum up, here are some possible meanings of the word (this is by no means an exhaustive list):

-lover, beloved one, darling, sweetheart, sweetie, honey (said to a lover)
-sweetheart, sweetie (said to a child)
-buddy, pal, man, friend, mate (said to a friend)
-"habibi" is said to little kids by strangers to soften a request (for examples, "ta'al hon, habibi" ["come here, sweetie]) 
-"ya habibi" can mean "Oh my!" as an expression of amazement, frustration, disapproval, etc.
-"habibi!!" in a plaintive, whiney tone can mean "pleeeeeeeeeease? pretty please with a cherry on top??"

Of course, as was mentioned, the female version is "habibti," the plural "habaybi" or "habibati" (at least in Palestinian Arabic). Also bear in mind that the interjection "ya habibi!" I mentioned works only in the singular male form.

These are all, of course, Palestinian Arabic versions. I don't know how many of them are the same in other dialects (that would be too much for me to try to figure out!  )

And yes, Hebrew has borrowed many slang (and vulgar!) expressions from Palestinian Arabic. "Habibi" is one of many.


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## ghalipam

it means (my honey)


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## steph_oc

My boyfriend is lebanese and calls me Habibi.  It means darling.  It can be used amongst friends also. Men to men, men to women, women to women. its a sweet way of calling some one you care about.


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## suzie_pales

nice word....and wonderful replies


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## ^MB^

nice replies  


Habib*i*

Habib حبيب = lover, darling 

*i *= my

Habibi = my darling = حبيبى

u can say it in many situations

when u meet ur darling, closed friend, baby, ur father, husband, ..........etc


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## FruitTingle

FYI

"Habibi" means "my darling or my sweetheart" but it is used when you would call a male by that, if you were talking to a woman then you would say "Habibti"


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## Xerinola

I'm arabic translator, HABIBI is sweety, darling, honey...
En Español: cariño

Saludos from Barcelona!


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## belano75

cuchuflete said:
			
		

> Hi Rob,
> 
> Years ago I studied some medieval Spanish/Arabic love poetry. The word was used frequently in those poems. I was taught that it meant "beloved one" in the Arabic of the time. Here is a modern translation of a popular song. It seems that the meaning has endured for hundreds of years.
> 
> http://www.shira.net/nourelain.htm
> 
> cheers,
> Cuchu


 
I remember this word from a poem. It is a kharja (jarcha), a kind of lyrical poem written in Mozarabic. It was a Romance language strongly influenced by Arab and Hebrew, spoken in some areas of the Iberian Peninsula during the Middle Age. It has been very surpring for me to discover that Arabs are still using this word.

Those poems were originally written with Arab letters. This is a transcription in Latin letters for this one (this word is also appearing in many others):

"Tan t'amaray tan t'amaray
habib, tan t'amaray
Enfermeron welyos cuidas
ya dolen tan male"

It is supposed to be one the oldest poems keept by us in a Romance language.


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## habibi&habiba

Dear Friends

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my views through this forum. I am currently at Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and being an outsider I can identify with the usage of the word Habibi. Almost every Arabic love song has the word Habibi in it.

Further, Habibi is also used when guys get irritated with you and try to explain a point to you. For example: Habibi ... the computer software doesnt work this way etc ...

Of course, I myself use the word Habibi to address my girl friend and she thinks its very cute and calls me habiba in return.  

Habiba


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## smooha

I don't know if this thread is still active, but worth a shot:

Can someone explain to me the use of 7abib/7abibti use in romantic situations?  I've heard that, at least in Egyptian usage, masculine forms (e.g. 7abib) are used by men to a dress women in a flirtatious way, kind of like what _habibi&habiba_ mentioned.

Also, corrolary question: is anybody out there familiar with usage among the queer Arab sub-culture?  I know that in Israel, for example, many gay men jokingly (and often not jokingly as well) use the feminine forms with each other.

Thanks--
N


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## elroy

smooha said:


> Can someone explain to me the use of 7abib/7abibti use in romantic situations? I've heard that, at least in Egyptian usage, masculine forms (e.g. 7abib) are used by men to a dress women in a flirtatious way, kind of like what _habibi&habiba_ mentioned.


 Yes, this is common, but always with the possessive pronoun. That is, you could tell a girl "7abiibi" but not just "7abiib." Interestingly enough, this does not work the other way around: men are not addressed as "7abiibti" in romantic situations. 


> Also, corrolary question: is anybody out there familiar with usage among the queer Arab sub-culture? I know that in Israel, for example, many gay men jokingly (and often not jokingly as well) use the feminine forms with each other.


 I do not know the answer to this question.


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## smooha

elroy said:


> Yes, this is common, but always with the possessive pronoun. That is, you could tell a girl "7abiibi" but not just "7abiib." Interestingly enough, this does not work the other way around: men are not addressed as "7abiibti" in romantic situations.
> I do not know the answer to this question.



Would this apply to just the word 7abiibi or would this masculinization apply to conjugated verbs as well?

As for the second comment I made about gender reversal, I was referring to Israeli Hebrew, not Palestinian Arabic.  My apologies if this was unclear; and I wouldn't expect anyone who is not a part of the (mostly underground) Arab gay subculture to know the answer..


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## elroy

smooha said:


> Would this apply to just the word 7abiibi or would this masculinization apply to conjugated verbs as well?


 It would apply to conjugated verbs as well. 


> As for the second comment I made about gender reversal, I was referring to Israeli Hebrew, not Palestinian Arabic. My apologies if this was unclear; and I wouldn't expect anyone who is not a part of the (mostly underground) Arab gay subculture to know the answer..


 Questions about Israeli Hebrew are beyond the scope of the Arabic forum.


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## smooha

elroy said:


> It would apply to conjugated verbs as well.
> Questions about Israeli Hebrew are beyond the scope of the Arabic forum.



The question wasn't about Israeli Hebrew.  I was just referencing the gender reversal among gay men in Israel, a) because Hebrew and [at least Palestinian] Arabic have some overlap and b) so that you wouldn't all think I just descended from the moon for suggesting this phenomenon might exist in Arabic .


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## elroy

That was clear from the beginning.   I said I did not know the answer to your question about the usage in Arabic because I am not familiar with that sub-culture.


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## nena005

Habibi means husband in Arabic


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## elroy

nena005 said:


> Habibi means husband in Arabic


 Welcome to the forums.  

I'm sorry to disagree with your very first post but "habibi" does not mean "husband" in Arabic.  If you want to know what it means, please read through this thread.


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## nena005

Well sorry for that then I was told in the past that it was husband.


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## javed5395

Hi all, I have become a proud father of a  baby girl.  I want to name her Habiba.  ?  Should it be Habiba or Habibeh?


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## elroy

Hi, Javed.  Welcome to the forums and congratulations on the birth of your daughter. 

"Habiba" is the MSA (standard Arabic) form, while "habibeh" is the Levantine pronunciation.

I'd say pick whichever one sounds better to you.


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## Mahaodeh

Hi, Javed, congratulations for the girl and may she be brought up in prosper.


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## javed5395

Thank you so much


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## Heddy77

I have a friend in Amman, Jordan and he said that Habibi means love or darling. I've also heard it used just as a general term of endearment.


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## Mahaodeh

^^ correct.  You love your husband, you call him habibi, you love your son/brother/friend/uncle/cat...etc. so you call him habibi.  It simply means "my love" and the love can be of any kind.


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## doctordrei

this topic was used long time ago .. but if i write an answer .. maybe it's up and alive again ? 

I was wondering, in one thread i've sean that Habib + i gets a possisive meaning, so habibti is also made of habibt+i and gets possesive meaning, or it's different case with female word?

by the way. here was mentioned  HABIBA several times ( in nick habiba&habibi) and about a man got a baby girl.  Is it also a word, noun, adjective? Or it's just a female name?


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## Mahaodeh

Habibti is possessive of Habiba. In Standard Arabic it's pronounced Habibati but the second 'a' sound is often dropped in colloquial.
 
Habiba is the feminine form of Habib (beloved one) so the baby girl's name is "the beloved one". By adding the i (letter yaa') it means "my beloved one". Whether it's an adjective or not depends on it's location in the sentence and an adjective is a noun so I'd say yes, the word is a noun .


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## kteach618

Hi... Okay I may have a slight dilemma on my hands.  My boyfriend drew out a tattoo that I have been wanting for 6 months.  I had a friend draw it also and it looked the same.  The tattoo says Habibti written in natural form.  However, my friend says it is missing dots, and my boyfriend swears it's right.  Can there be different ways to write it?  I got it already and now I'm nervous that it says nothing.  Or something else.

It has two at the top, two at the bottom, and two under the last sound (the big curve - i can't find it on my arabic keyboard thing).  AHHHH!  Help!


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## elroy

Welcome to the forum.

It should look like this: حبيبتي

So 2 on top and a total of 6 on the bottom.


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## kteach618

Ok, so my next question is... I talked to him last night and told him to think hard because I can have the other two dots put on but I can't take them off.  He said that in casual conversation, the vowel sounds are mostly left out.  He said that only in professional writing/speaking do you add the vowel sounds so mine is the casual...  And he is Lebanese, does that make a difference?

I believe you!  It's just that if I get these two put on, I cant take them off and he swears it's right. 

THANK YOU SO MUCH!
I have a picture of what he wrote (that I took to the tattoo shop), but I can't put it here because I haven't posted at least 30 posts.  If it would help to see it, and see if you can read it, we can figure something out.  Just let me know.


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## elroy

He is right about vowels, but the dots in this word are not vowels.  They are absolutely indispensable.  And it doesn't make a difference where you're from.

You can send me the link to the picture by PM, and I can post it for you.


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## kteach618

ok thanks!  I will send it.


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## elroy

Here is the link: http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n154/kteach618/SCAN0001.jpg

That is definitely not the correct spelling of the word.  It looks like a phonetic spelling of the Egyptian pronunciation of the word, which is "hab*i*bti" instead of "hab*ii*bti."  But in Lebanese it should be the latter.


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## kteach618

ok that's why then.  he always writes it the first way.  so if i put in the two dots, will it be right?

it looks like that's all i'm missing if I compare the one you posted to the one he wrote


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## elroy

Generally, it gets written "habibti" in English regardless of pronunciation.  The original is in Arabic, and we don't use English transliterations as a guide to Arabic spelling. 

Not only do you need two additional dots; you need another "well" to put the two dots under.

حببتي (wrong) vs. حبيبتي (right)


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## kteach618

haha yeah, that's what I figured, so when he wrote it in Arabic, he was probably "looking" at the english "version" in his head. Ok, so i can have the tattoo guy add another peak (sorry, dont know the letter names) all the way to the right of the others, and put two more dots under it. If you can visualize this, would it work?

Thank you for being so patient with me, by the way. It's just that this is going to be on me forever, and the word habibti is really meaningful... i dont want it to say something completely different. :-/


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## elroy

No, that wouldn't work.  Because you've already gotten the tattoo, this is going to be pretty hard to fix.

Look at the part between حـ on the right and تي on the left.  What you have now is ببـ. The guy would need to insert ـيـ between the two, so the result should be بيبـ.


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## Josh_

Hello kteach618,

If it helps I took the the picture you provided and changed it to show how it might look if spelled correctly.  Please see the attachment below.

In essence, you should have four peaks between the initial حـ and the final ـي , the first and third peaks (counting from right to left) will have one dot under, or just to the left of, them; the second will have two dots under, or just to the left of, it; and the last one will have two dots above, or just to the left of, it.


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## kteach618

Thanks Josh!  That helps!  Elroy says I can't fix it and make it look good.   I may need laser.  But I will take this to my guy and see what he says.  I definitely don't want something on there that makes me look like an idiot.  :-/  Seriously tearing up over here.  I'm so dumb. Sigh.


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## kteach618

Hi everyone.  Thanks for all your help.  My tattoo guy is wonderful.  He fixed it!  Now it is spelled correctly.  Again, thanks.  You have no idea how helpful you were!


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## Josh_

You are most welcome.  I am glad everything worked out for you.


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## Singinswtt11

So my question is, is "habibi" something that can be used in a purely platonic sense? Like if a girl were to say it to a guy friend of hers, in no romantic sense at all, could it be taken the wrong way?


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## Mahaodeh

In general, yes, it is quite often used in a platonic sense; you can say it to your father, brother, son, friend or anyone you like.  However, due to cultural sensitivity and to avoid confusion it's best to avoid it between unrelated people of different gender such as the case you mentioned. In the example you mentioned, it _could_ be taken the wrong way although it _doesn't have to_.


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## angelofmusic101

ahlan! 

I'm still yet to find a decent online dictionary for Arabic (any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, though I am fully aware that this is not what this thread is about...) but wordreference was so useful to me for my French and German last year...

which brings me to my question regarding this thread. Could someone please tell me what the plural of "habiib" is. And I am assuming the plural of the feminine form would be "habiibaat" ?

shoqran!


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## Soos

angelofmusic101, have you checked the following thread which contains hundreds of Arabic resources, including dictionaries?

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=63753


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## elroy

angelofmusic101 said:


> which brings me to my question regarding this thread. Could someone please tell me what the plural of "habiib" is. And I am assuming the plural of the feminine form would be "habiibaat" ?


 In Palestinian Arabic, the plural forms are "Habaayeb" (m.) and "Habibaat" (f.).


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## Mahaodeh

In fus7a it's a7ibba.


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## elroy

Mahaodeh said:


> In fus7a it's a7ibba.


 Or "a7ibbaa2."


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## AnaKhattab

Hi, I'm married to a Arab and I thought it was a normal thing to call someone "habibi" (meaning "my beloved"). It's a little more complex and depending on how educated and refined that person is, this word can't be used lightly. I was told not too long ago that it's wrong to call a stranger "habibi" and to a wife or husband, you should never refer to them in public with this word. So, be careful when you use this word, some people might get offended. When addressing someone else it's good manners to show respect. Example: If you are talking about your or someone else's wife or husband, always use "Mrs.", "Madam", "Sir", "Mr.". It will show how much class you have and keep you out of trouble.
The word "habibi" is for male and "habibti" is for female.


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## AnaKhattab

Singinswtt11 said:


> So my question is, is "habibi" something that can be used in a purely platonic sense? Like if a girl were to say it to a guy friend of hers, in no romantic sense at all, could it be taken the wrong way?


It's disrespectful to use it in public or referring to someone who is not family.


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## Hemza

Does anyone use (a?) تصغير of حبيبي/حبيبتي? I think it is widely used in Morocco (at least in my family, it is A LOOT  ) where people use to call حبوب/حبوبة
(7abbuub/7abbuuba) someone they get affection toward. Is it the case in your country/ies?


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## mayapan

The above word is at page 292, Chapter 26, of _The Sheltering Sky_ by Paul Bowles.

The context: Later, after the second man had his pleasure with Kit and walked off, she sought to get an explanation from Belqassim, even though they had no common language. And so....

"She held his head between her hands. 'Why did you let him?' she could not help saying.
'_Habibi,_' he murmured, stroking her cheek tenderly."


I'v read, in a prior post from 2013, that '_Habibi_' is sometimes a term of endearment. Would that be the same in the context above?

Thank you.


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## ayed

My sweetie


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## mayapan

Thanks, ayed. Appreciate also the additional information about the word.


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## ayed

You are very welcome


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