On Name and Shame
by asi
Ever since I arrived to the UK, it happens to me at least once a week that I hand my card to a cashier (supermarket, boots etc) and if he/she happens to be of south Asian origin (Indian to be precise) it will be hard for them to chock/disguise the chuckle…
Apparently, Sharabi in Hindu means “bad drunk”.
As if that isn’t enough, I just discovered sharabi.com:
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So if gay Bollywood films are what makes you tick, you now know where to find it.
More on funny surnames here
[PS: In case you really want to know, the origin of my surname is the city of Sharab in Yemen where my father's great-grandparents came from].
Random historical fact time: People of South Asian origin who laugh at your last name should probably be told that Sharab entered their lexicon when Urdu (the language of Pakistan) came about. Urdu was a language that was born out of the garrison town culture in the 16th century.
Urdu itself is loosely translated as ‘foreigner’ in Turkish and is an amalgamation of Persian, Turkish and Arabic – the three main languages of the majority of Muslim soldiers who lived in the garrison outposts of the Islamic world at that time. Their interaction with the people of India is what began the genesis of the language.
Sharab in Arabic comes from the root sharb (to drink/one who drinks/a sweet liquid) which is the forefather of the English word sherbet. At some point in the journey it began to be taken as intoxicatingly sweet and subsequently just intoxicating, hence the use of it now in the subcontinent. And the reason for checkout staff giggling wildly.
I know I probably didn’t need to write all of that, but once I started, I had to finish. I hope after all that I’m at least semi-right.
wow Sam, thats brilliant.
thanks a lot!
A.
No problem dude!
hey Asi, funny info!
I think my grandma was born in Sharab, but she is not sure and now gets easily confused! Do you know if it’s near Sana`a?