qah'ba 🔊

Usage examples

• اسكتي يا قحبة
  Shut up, you bitch.
• ابن قحبة
  Son of a bitch.
• هذي قحبة شوارع
  She's a street bitch.

Etymology

From the classical Arabic root ق-ح-ب (q-ḥ-b). Older Arabic lexicographers connected the term to coughing or signalling — a qaḥba being, by some accounts, a woman who would cough or call out to attract men, hence "prostitute." The literal sense survives in modern Arabic but the word is now most often deployed colloquially as a generic insult equivalent to English "bitch."

Cultural notes

Used across virtually all Arabic dialects with consistent meaning, though the strength varies by setting — it lands hardest in conservative Gulf and Levantine speech, where it directly impugns a woman's honor and can provoke serious offense or violence. The compound ابن قحبة ("son of a bitch") is one of the most common Arabic insults regionwide, frequent in heated arguments, rap and hip-hop, and film dialogue.

Same meaning, other languages

Accuracy

56% of 18 voters say this translation is accurate.