Okay, let’s begin our session! Being Internet-savvy Indonesians, I believe that many of you have heard the word ‘hijaber’ before.
Internet-savvy = Jago/terbiasa menggunakan Internet
‘Hijaber’ is often used in Indonesia-based online forum/blog to describe a girl with an Islamic head scarf/veil.
But is it really the proper English term to describe ‘a girl with hijab’?
Introducing our #WOTD: HIJABI.
Based on Arabic ‘hijab’ (screen, curtain), Urban Dictionary describes it as “girl/woman who wears Islamic head-covering respectfully”
The word has been adsorbed into English, and is commonly used among Muslim communities in the West.
Yes, because in English, we don’t always end a word with “-er” to describe what a person do.
Here are examples on how to use the word:
“Have you met Fatima? She is the Hijabi with the orange dress.”
“You have been single for too long. I’ll introduce to this nice Hijabi girl I know.”
I did a little experiment. I tried to Google ‘hijaber’ and the top answers mostly come from Indonesia.
But when I Google “hijabi”, the top answers were the Urban Dictionary and some pages from English-speaking countries like US or UK.
Like this funny article from Buzzfeed: http://t.co/80ElkRbQHz
Also this American hijabi fashion blogger: http://t.co/5I80FRucOQ
And this British documentary film “Hip-Hop Hijabis” produced by Al-Jazeera Network.
There is also ‘niqabi’, “a woman who wears a niqab (full-face covering veil)”. (Image: http://t.co/qLNIP0tOMK)
Source: Urban Dictionary, Buzzfeed, Al-Jazeera Network
Compiled by @animenur for @EnglishTips4U on Sunday, 15 March 2015.
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