mkhalbez مخلبز
Tunisian Derja · adjective
“mkhalbez” (مخلبز) is an adjective in Tunisian Derja meaning messy, jumbled.
Meanings
- messy, jumbled
- sloppy, botched
Usage
Mkhalbez describes something carelessly mixed, in disorder, or done in a hurry. It can be a dish with ingredients thrown together haphazardly, a badly tidied room, or sloppy work. It comes from the verb khalbez, "to mess up, to botch". The word is informal and often slightly mocking. It agrees: mkhalbza in the feminine, mkhalbzin in the plural. It can be compared to mkhalwedh, "muddled", but mkhalbez emphasizes the lack of care more.
Example
الماكلة اليوم مخلبزة، ما فهمت فيها شيء
el makla lyoum mkhalbza, ma fhemt fiha chay
“Today's meal is a real mess, I couldn't make sense of it.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mkhalbez” but also “m5albez”, “mkhalbza” and “m5alboz”. 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.