lbes لباس
Tunisian Derja · noun
“lbes” (لباس) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning clothes, garments.
Meanings
- clothes, garments
- outfit, attire
Usage
Lbes is the general term for clothes and the way of dressing. It is a collective noun: lbesou ("his clothes"). It appears in lbes tounsi or lbes ta9lidi for traditional dress, and in lbes el 3id for the new clothes of Eid. The verb from the same root is lbes / yelbes ("to get dressed, to wear"). The pitfall for an English speaker: you need the context to tell whether it is the noun or the verb, because they are spelled the same way in arabizi.
Example
شرينا لباس العيد للصغار
chrina lbes el 3id lel sghar
“We bought Eid clothes for the kids.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “lbes” but also “lbas”, “lebes” and “lbess”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.