complexities of language
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“For a man formidable and even equal to Yusef himself in battle, the frank sure seemed hopeless at everything else.
Again, habibi, really?”
ElephantOfAfrica pointed out that (paraphrased):
Habibi does indeed mean ‘My Love’ and grammatically it's being used correctly, but the reality of day to day life for Arabic speakers is a little bit different. It’s very, very casual and very versatile; it's not special. Some people use it when they're gearing up for a fight 😂 like "oh yeah Habibi?!" Fists up a-hole!!! Like it can mean babe, or honey, or you fucker, or are-you-trying-to-charge-me-extra-for-2-kilos-of-tomato?-fuck-you, or what-do-mean-your-mom-sent-us-dinner-again?-are-you-complaining-about-my-cooking-to-her? 👀👀 In general, there’s an incredibly passive aggressive energy it holds.
So this language plot-hole fixit got stuck in my head and wouldn’t leave. This is how Joe started calling Nicky “habibi,” and how the word became theirs.