Lacy from Virginia Beach, Virginia, says her Lebanese in-laws often use the expression ya’aburnee when addressing an adorable child. Literally it translates as “may you bury me,” the idea being that the child is so precious one would be unable to...
Considering that the first alphabet goes back as far as 1600 BC, it’s pretty remarkable how little has changed. Robert Fradkin, a classics professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert Fradkin illustrates this point with helpful animations on his...
A listener from Fairfield, Connecticut, wonders why she changes her accent and diction when family members from the Middle East are in town. Truth it, everyone does this. It’s a matter of imitating those around us in order to make ourselves feel...
muhajababe n.— Note: This term has recently been popularized by Allegra Stratton’s book Muhajababes. «I call them ‘muhajababes’. (Muhajabe means veiled, or wearing the veil, and ‘babe’ speak for itself.)…The majority of the Lebanese female muslims...
network war n.— «In a network war, the rigid hierarchical structure of a conventional army has difficulty engaging the flattened structure of a hybrid force such as Hezbollah, in which the sophistication of a conventional force is packed into a...
drop-dead deadline n.— «More than 7,000 Americans already have fled the area and the U.S. was prepared to take another 3,000 out this weekend in what has been referred to as “drop-dead deadline” to leave the area.» —“Israeli troops raid village in...