So here's a new spin on a classic: Yusuf has obviously been calling Nicolo 'habibi' for a while now (months-years, I'm not fussy). but refuses to tell him what it means. (Hey, it's a classic for a reason.)
BUT, they're travelling through a lot of Arabic-speaking places, and eventually Nicky hears other people using the word. He observes that they mostly use it for their children, one time a cute kitten, maybe one time when someone's husband or BFF is being a dumbass... etc. (Maybe this is his obliviousness, or missing the sweet moments because people are less demonstrative around strangers, bad luck, confirmation bias, whatever.)
So he correctly deduces that Joe is calling him 'sweetheart', but assumes it's in an inherently patronizing way. Tl;dr: Nicky comes to the conclusion that 'habibi' means 'my sweet summer child'.
If the author is more familiar with Arabic than I am (read: at all) and wants to substitute another appropriate term, feel free; I just landed on this one because the fandom discussion of how 'habibi' gets used a lot in a 'come at me bro' way in modern Arabic inspired this prompt.
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timeasmymeasure
Nicky/Joe, Nuances of 'Habibi'
Date: 2020-09-08 03:08 am (UTC)BUT, they're travelling through a lot of Arabic-speaking places, and eventually Nicky hears other people using the word. He observes that they mostly use it for their children, one time a cute kitten, maybe one time when someone's husband or BFF is being a dumbass... etc. (Maybe this is his obliviousness, or missing the sweet moments because people are less demonstrative around strangers, bad luck, confirmation bias, whatever.)
So he correctly deduces that Joe is calling him 'sweetheart', but assumes it's in an inherently patronizing way. Tl;dr: Nicky comes to the conclusion that 'habibi' means 'my sweet summer child'.
If the author is more familiar with Arabic than I am (read: at all) and wants to substitute another appropriate term, feel free; I just landed on this one because the fandom discussion of how 'habibi' gets used a lot in a 'come at me bro' way in modern Arabic inspired this prompt.