# All dialects: I'm broke



## Tilmeedh

Hi all--how could one say 'I'm broke' in the various Arabic dialects, uttered by, e.g., a university graduate or entrepreneur struggling to pay back big loans?

Would (أنا مفلّ*ِ*س) work in this context? What other terms are available?

Thanks in advance.


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## elroy

Yes, مْفَلِّسْ in Palestinian Arabic.  Some other dialects use طَفْرَانْ (which means "angry / pissed off" in Palestinian).


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## WadiH

مفلّس
مفْلس
مطفّر
طفران
على الحديدة / عالحديدة


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## fenakhay

مزلوط (mazluuT)
زاوي (zaawi)
مفلس (mfallas)
حازق (7aaziq) (literally means: "farting", it is slangy)


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## cherine

mefaless and 3al-7adida are used in Egyptian Arabic as well. There's also 3aj-janT ع الجنط , which is a car-relatd metaphor taken from the word جنط (car rim, from the French jante). I think I also heard m(e)jannaT, from the same word


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## Hemza

fenakhay said:


> حازق (7aaziq) (literally means: "farting", it is slangy)





cherine said:


> There's also 3aj-janT ع الجنط , which is a car-relatd metaphor taken from the word جنط (car rim, from the French jante). I think I also heard m(e)jannaT, from the same word


Hahahah thank you for the good laugh  .
@cherine Hadn't you explain this جنط I would have NEVER expected a link with "jante" .


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## Tilmeedh

Thanks for all the suggestions so far.

I wonder about the origin of (مطفّر) and (طفران). WR says that (طَفَرَ) means 'to jump/to leap' or 'to mutate', which are about as unrelated conceptually to being broke as one can imagine.


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## WadiH

Tilmeedh said:


> Thanks for all the suggestions so far.
> 
> I wonder about the origin of (مطفّر) and (طفران). WR says that (طَفَرَ) means 'to jump/to leap' or 'to mutate', which are about as unrelated conceptually to being broke as one can imagine.



To add to the confusion, طفرة also means an economic boom, especially oil booms in the Gulf. This is clearly related to the original sense of ‘jump’ but it’s the very opposite of being broke.


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## jack_1313

In Lebanon, I have seen انكسر used with this meaning (to go broke). I _can't_ say with certainty that the active particle - مكنسر - is used as the adjective form, but perhaps someone else can chime in.


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## Hemza

Wadi Hanifa said:


> To add to the confusion, طفرة also means an economic boom, especially oil booms in the Gulf. This is clearly related to the original sense of ‘jump’ but it’s the very opposite of being broke.


I've never seen this roots/these words although I imagine this might have to do with the fact a sudden economic boom represents a shift, a fracture as compared to what it used to be (I imagine a graphic with a curve which suddenly and strongly increases), hence the shared meaning? I can't explain it well but I see a link between the jump and the break.


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## al-Moroccan

Wadi Hanifa said:


> To add to the confusion, طفرة also means an economic boom.


It also means _mutation_ in biology.


Hemza said:


> I would have NEVER expected a link with "jante".


In Morocco, we say جانطة.


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## Tilmeedh

elroy said:


> Yes, مْفَلِّسْ in Palestinian Arabic.  Some other dialects use طَفْرَانْ (which means "angry / pissed off" in Palestinian).



Regarding the use of (طفران) to mean 'broke' in dialects other than Palestinian, a Syrian recently told me:

(اممم صراحة ما بعرف اذا مستخدمة هالكلمة كتير بس اي كمان صح)

'i know طفران could mean مالل or ضايج but as for other meaning i don't know'

I haven't found the adjectives (مالل) or (ضائج) in MSA resources, so I'm quite puzzled about how (طفران) is used in North Levantine.


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## wriight

jack_1313 said:


> In Lebanon, I have seen انكسر used with this meaning (to go broke). I _can't_ say with certainty that the active particle - مكنسر - is used as the adjective form, but perhaps someone else can chime in.


Yup, انكسرت works great here, and its participle/adjective form is مكسور. We've also got فلّس/مفلّس, but it personally makes me think of a business going bankrupt rather than an individual going broke. One edge case: if there's an individual who's dead broke *because* their business has gone bankrupt, it'd make sense to say إنّه انكسر لأنّها فلّست شركته.


Spoiler: Side note about مكسور vs. منكسر



انفعل's participle in general is actually مفعول for us, which might be because of how it's mostly become the passive of Form I and stopped being a 100%-distinct verb form. The مفعول participle does turn into منفعل for hollow roots, like منقال ("said") and منشاف ("seen") and all the rest, but otherwise I think there are only a few random منفعل's that come and go depending on region (e.g. I have منزعج for "annoyed" where others say مزعوج). For this word, I think مكسور is the way to go





Tilmeedh said:


> so I'm quite puzzled about how (طفران) is used in North Levantine.


Can't speak for all of North Levantine, so these might not line up with your Syrian contact's definitions, but here's my  understanding of them in my own dialect after double-checking with family:

If you're struggling with a devastating disruption or drain on your budget, like the bankruptcy thing from above or your examples of paying back big loans, you're مكسور.
If you're just out of money temporarily and you'll be on better footing the next time you get paid, you're طفران.
And I think مكسور implies طفران, although maybe there's some sneaky argument for a case where only the first one applies.


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## djara

In Tunisian, we say فالس fālis


elroy said:


> Yes, مْفَلِّسْ in Palestinian Arabic.


In Tunisian مْفَلِّسْ means speeding as when driving a car.


Wadi Hanifa said:


> To add to the confusion, طفرة also means an economic boom,


To add to the confusion, طفّار in Tunisian means a man who sexually abuses boys. In his Supplément aux dictionnaires arabes, Dozy provides the following definition: طَفَّار. قوّاد، الساعي بين المرأة والرجل للفجور


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## Hemza

fenakhay said:


> مزلوط (mazluuT)
> زاوي (zaawi)
> مفلس (mfallas)
> حازق (7aaziq) (literally means: "farting", it is slangy)


زلط means money in some Yemeni areas. I guess it is linked to our مزلوط?


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## jack_1313

wriight said:


> Can't speak for all of North Levantine, so these might not line up with your Syrian contact's definitions, but here's my understanding of them in my own dialect after double-checking with family:


I can confirm that this applies to Jordan too. طفران is something like "short on money right now", as opposed to broke or bankrupt.


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## Tilmeedh

wriight said:


> Can't speak for all of North Levantine, so these might not line up with your Syrian contact's definitions, but here's my  understanding of them in my own dialect after double-checking with family:
> 
> If you're struggling with a devastating disruption or drain on your budget, like the bankruptcy thing from above or your examples of paying back big loans, you're مكسور.
> If you're just out of money temporarily and you'll be on better footing the next time you get paid, you're طفران.
> And I think مكسور implies طفران, although maybe there's some sneaky argument for a case where only the first one applies.



Thanks for this clear explanation. Do you know or use the terms (مالل) or (ضايج)? How do they differ from (مكسور) and (طفران)?


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## wriight

I don't use either word myself, but they must both mean "bored". مالل is the same as MSA مالّ, from the verb ملّ, and the livingarabic.com Levantine dictionary (is it usable to you, by the way? Not sure because it seems way more JavaScript-heavy than e.g. Wiktionary) defines ضايج as ضَجِر "bored to death, tired" as well.

Lebanese speakers mainly use either زهقان or ضجران for "bored", so that leaves طفران open for other meanings.


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## Tilmeedh

Good to know.  I've asked my contact about (مالل) and (ضايج), and you are correct:

'these two has the meaning of bored or maybe fed up'

Now I wonder how one would say 'I'm broke' in Syrian. This person has mentioned (ع الحديدة), but perhaps there are other options.

PS: It's possible to use the dictionary at livingarabic.com with JAWS, but the search function could easily be redesigned to work better with my screenreader.


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## analeeh

ع الحديد, ع الحديدة، مفلس

ضايج most commonly means annoyed or fed up in my experience.


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