yabes يابس
Algerian Darja · adjective
“yabes” (يابس) is an adjective in Algerian Darja meaning dry, dried.
Meanings
- dry, dried
- hard, stale
- stiff, wooden (figurative)
Usage
Yabes means "dry": dried flowers or herbs (ward yabes), laundry that has dried, dead wood. For food, it means something that has hardened: stale bread (khobz yabes), crystallized honey. Figuratively, it can describe something lacking flexibility or life: a stiff person, a wooden performance. The feminine is yabsa and the plural is yabsin. The opposite is wet or fresh, depending on context. It also appears in the expression ras yabes, "hard head", for a stubborn person.
Example
الخبز ولّى يابس، ما يتّاكلش
lkhobz wella yabes, ma yetteklch
“The bread has gone stale, it can't be eaten anymore.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “yabes” but also “yabess”, “yabs” and “yabis”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “yabes” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “dry, dried”; “hard, stale (bread)”: yebes in Tunisian.