This is a post about a common, and commonly misused, word – تعبان ta3baan.
First things first. Grammatically, تعبان is an -aan participle, which we’ve previously talked about here. Like many other participles, it refers to the state resulting from a verb – in this case تعب ti3eb/yit3ab. This verb has a causative with its own participle (تعّب ta33ab, متعب mta33eb). There’s also an adjective derived from the same root with a related meaning, متعب mit3eb/mut3eb. These forms do not differ significantly from dialect to dialect.
Normally, تعبان is translated as ‘tired’, تعب as ‘get tired’, and متعب as ‘tiring’ or ‘tiresome’. Although this is certainly somewhere close to the meaning, تعبان is somewhat stronger than the English word ‘tired’ is. Most of the time, a more appropriate equivalent to English ‘tired’ is نعسان na3saan ‘sleepy, drowsy’. تعبان is probably closer in this case to ‘worn out’ or ‘exhausted’. If you say you’re ‘tired’ in English after getting up early nobody will be surprised, but if you say you’re تعبان under the same circumstances you’re likely to be met with concern!
تعبان is also often used in a sense closer to ‘ill’ – that is, it often carries a connotation that you’re coming down with something or are poorly.
Note that unlike ‘tired’, تعبان can also be used to refer to things. If someone tells you:
البيت تعبان ولله
@lbeet ta3baan waLLa
What they mean is that it’s old or shabby (and not, obviously, that it’s tired).
Likewise:
الحالة تعبانة يا ليلى
il7aale ta3baani yaa leyla
Means things are not looking good, that things are in a bad way, etc.
Note also the expression:
نفسيتو تعبانة
nafsiyyto ta3baane
He’s really down in the dumps
Things have really got him down
Note also the common use of the verb تعب in the following construction:
تعبنا كتير لحتى وصلنا
t3ǝbna ktiir la7atta waSSalna
It took us forever to get there [= we got tired a lot until we arrived]
It took so much effort to get here
la7atta is distinctly Syrian. ta- (Leb, Pal) and la- (everywhere) are other regional alternatives.