khemmas خماس
Algerian Darja · noun
“khemmas” (خماس) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning sharecropper paid with part of the harvest.
Meanings
- sharecropper paid with part of the harvest
- poorly paid farmhand
- (pejorative) lackey, exploited man
Usage
Khemmas originally refers to the sharecropper who farms a landowner's land in exchange for a small share of the harvest. The word evokes the old rural condition and dependence on the landowner. Today it is used mostly figuratively for someone who works hard for next to nothing, or who submits to a boss or a powerful person: "rah khaddam khemmas". In arguments, it is a contemptuous term equivalent to "lackey" or "slave". The common plural is khemmassa. The word is also used to complain about one's own job.
Example
راني خدّام كي الخمّاس طول النهار وما نخلّص والو
rani khaddam kima l-khemmas tol nhar w ma nkhalles walou
“I toil like a sharecropper all day and earn nothing.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khemmas” but also “khamas”, “khemasse”, “5ammas” and “khammes”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “khemmas” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “sharecropper paid a fifth of the harvest”; “exploited worker, lackey”: khammes in Tunisian.