yebes يابس
Tunisian Derja · adjective
“yebes” (يابس) is an adjective in Tunisian Derja meaning dry, dried.
Meanings
- dry, dried
- hard, stale (bread)
- stiff, stubborn (person, character)
Usage
Yebes means "dry". It is used for something with no moisture, laundry or a branch (3oud yebes), and for dried fruit or herbs: karmous yebes, "dried figs". For bread, it means "stale": khobz yebes. It is also used for a stiff or stubborn person: rasou yebes, "he is hard-headed". The feminine is yebsa and the plural yebsin. The expression lakhdhar w el yebes, "the green and the dry", means "everything, without distinction". Not to be confused with nachef, which is more common for "wrung out, dried" when speaking of laundry or hair.
Example
الخبز ولّى يابس، ما عادش يتّاكل
el khobz walla yebes, ma 3adech yetekel
“The bread has gone stale, it's no longer edible.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “yebes” but also “yabes” and “yebis”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “yebes” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “dry, dried”; “hard, stale”: yabes in Algerian.