7abes حابس

Algerian Darja · adjective

“7abes” (حابس) is an adjective in Algerian Darja meaning lame, uncool, uninteresting.

Meanings

1. lame, uncool, uninteresting
2. dumb, clueless
3. stopped, at a standstill

Usage

7abes literally means "stopped, blocked". In youth slang, it describes a person or thing considered lame, outdated, uninteresting: film 7abes, rak 7abes. Applied to someone, it can also mean "dumb, off the mark", and ya 7abes is used as a mocking form of address. The register is informal and slightly scornful, but it is not vulgar. The literal sense is still alive: the auto 7absa, "the car is stopped". The feminine is 7absa.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7abes” but also “habes”, “7abess” and “7abs”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.

Type “7abes” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “stopped, at a standstill”; “stuck, stagnant”: 7abes in Tunisian.