khammes خماس
Tunisian Derja · noun
“khammes” (خماس) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning sharecropper paid a fifth of the harvest.
Meanings
- sharecropper paid a fifth of the harvest
- exploited worker, lackey
Usage
Khammes originally refers to the farm laborer who cultivates someone else's land in exchange for a share of the harvest. Today the word is mostly used figuratively: someone who toils for others without profit, or someone who serves a master. It is common in political and social discussions, often with bitterness: "nwalliw khammasa" ("we're becoming serfs"). The tone is pejorative or ironic, without being vulgar. Used about oneself, it expresses a complaint against exploitation. Applied to others, it criticizes servility. The plural is khammasa. The word is stronger than "employee" or "worker".
Example
نخدم كالخماس و الفلوس يدّيهم هو
nekhdem kel khammes w el flous ydiihom houwa
“I work like a sharecropper and he's the one who pockets the money.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khammes” but also “khames”, “khammas”, “5ammes” and “khammès”. 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 “khammes” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “sharecropper paid with part of the harvest”; “poorly paid farmhand”: khemmas in Algerian.