wasta
n.—Gloss: the Arabic word for influence, personal connections; “pull” or “juice.” Note: While not yet fully adopted as an English word, wasta is increasingly familiar to American soldiers serving in the Middle East. A previous surge in use of the term among Anglophones happened during the first Gulf War. «The vernacular has even followed the Army home: In the halls of the Pentagon, where nearly every Army officer has served at least two tours in Iraq, officers ask whether this or that official has “wasta“—Iraqi shorthand for “influence” or “pull,” though with a slightly more corrupt tinge.» —“Home Thoughts From Abroad” by Lawrence Kaplan Slate Dec. 26, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
A North Carolina listener is curious about his meemaw’s use of a term meaning “food” that he heard as either jasmine or jassum. A dialectal term with various spellings that include jassum, jasum, and jazm can mean “gravy,” “sauce,” or even “juice...
TTWWADI, (pronounced “tee-tee-waddy”) serves as a useful bit of shorthand for That’s The Way We’ve Always Done It. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “TTWWADI” On our Facebook page, Sandy Wolf introduced me to the concept of Titiwati...