Seven Phrases of Rage in Arabic

غَضَب

root: غ-ض-ب / noun / definition: anger

My mind feels switched off today, and I think it’s because I poured out all of my thoughts into the other post. I talked about the word عدن, my PhD status upgrade, and my search for olive leaves to burn.

My friend said she liked that metaphor—about burning the olive leaves. I told her it was a tradition and not a metaphor, but I think the lines are blurred anyway.

But less about metaphors and more about synonyms, please.

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Arabic Observations: Returning to مُحيط

إعادة

root: ع-و-د / form IV verbal noun / definition: return, re-

In the past few days, I reconnected with someone I haven’t seen in eleven years. And it made me reflect on the reasons why we return to our past—or why it returns to us.

And in terms of ideas, one theme I keep returning to (as you’ll have noticed in my posts) is that of the ocean.

I have some sort of spiritual and nostalgic connection with the water, and I can’t help but to linger over its linguistic connotations too. That’s why I’m returning to مُحيط.

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Dictionary Finds: بقيت دار لقمان على حالها

دار

root: د-و-ر / noun / plural: دِيار / definition: home

I had this idea a few days ago to vlog a week in my life as a PhD student. And now, every action poses a conundrum.

Like, do I record the aftermath of my disastrous attempt to bake a sugar-free brownie without a recipe or so much as a clue? Would my hypothetical audience find it interesting to watch me pour a rose-flavoured honey concoction over the resulting charcoal block to bring it to the edge of edibility?

And forget edibility— should I be worried about the credibility I’ll lose posting chaotic snippets of my days which, thus far, have scarcely featured “actual work”?

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A De-Forgotten Song, an Antidote, a Last Post

أَخير

root: ء-خ-ر / adjective / definition: last

Something usually goes wrong in the first few days of me living alone.

This time? I almost got locked out of the house, thanks to a jammed lock (remedied with olive oil, what else?)—oh, and I almost poisoned myself.

After messaging my sister to make sure she had a spare key (in case she needed to come to my rescue), I picked myself up off the floor and brewed a ginger tea (her advice) to allay the nausea. It worked in a sip. Who knew.

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Arabic Diptotes: الممنوع من الصرف

اِنْتِظار

root: ن-ظ-ر / form VIII verbal noun / definition: waiting

Time and tide wait for no man.

Yesterday was the first day I came across this English proverb. Its meaning resonated, but what really drew me to this phrase was the word “tide”.

You see, I’ve been thinking about the sea a lot lately. Thinking a lot, but writing little. (The eternal state of the PhD student…) And all my thoughts are cut-off sentences that hiccup before they reach a full stop or enigmatically trail off.

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Uncommon Arabic Words for Mankind

البَشَر

root: ب-ش-ر / noun / definition: mankind

For someone who aspires for a slow-paced life, I sure do seem to be on the go a lot.

“Another project?” they ask. Yes, apparently so. I’ve been liaising with venues and thinking of my friend’s article in between organising a family trip on an I’ll-reply-when-I-can group chat and agreeing to increase the capacity of a barely-prepared workshop I’m convening in four weeks due to apparent demand.

I’m thinking to gatecrash my parents’ retirement plans at this point.

But I think this, here and now, is me spiralling up a storm with firm belief that calm will inevitably follow.

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The Taste of Language

لِسان

root: ل-س-ن / noun / plural: أَلسِنة، أَلسُن / definition: tongue, language

I’m on day 3 of a five-day run of meetings and meet-ups. TfL continues to fleece me, my average step count continues to rise, and I continue to wonder what kind of rehab my introverted self will need after this.

Popping into the Hackney Cypriot Association today, I was too shy of my broken mother tongue to open my mouth.

I mumbled a few “iyi“s and “güzel“s and made off with two boxes of freshly-made bulgur köftes that were as familiar to my tongue as the dialects chattering around me. There’s something about that connection, isn’t there?

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Academic Arabic: Bridging, Framing, and Projecting

صَباح

root: ص-ب-ح / noun / definition: morning

Today, I woke up busy. I spent all my morning hours—and half of my afternoon ones—on my rocking chair with laptop in lap, steadily ticking through my checklist.

I’ll become a morning person by force at this rate.

Yet, don’t fret, nothing can distract me from writing on this blog. And I think another post in the Academic Arabic series is long overdue.

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إيمان: Form IV Verbal Nouns of Hamza-Initial Roots

صُداع

root: ص-د-ع / noun / definition: headache

I keep forgetting I’m 27. In my head, I’m already 28, and I’m not sure why.

It’s slightly ironic that I can’t digest the number 27; it seems I recognise 27 in everything but myself.

(I wonder if I lost a year in the time difference between Doha and London.)

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Writer’s Grief and Closing a Chapter

كاتِبة

root: ك-ت-ب / form I active participle, feminine form / definition: writing, a writer

I get emotionally attached to plans. I’ve been gathering quotes, ideas, and notes for months—only to realise there’s not enough word count (or time) to include everything in the chapter I’m writing.

So I save bullet points of brain clutter in a separate document and delude myself that I’ll one day go back and make use of them. It’s an empty hope I feed myself to allay my grief over orphaned ideas that find no page to call home.

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