Hadhlah & Muntah

"Hadhla means muntah," H exclaimed.

They had just come back from the masjid from their Arabic class. So far they had been 'teaching' me new Arabic words.

So I took in the new word as I did the others. Whenever Baby Z would spit up, they would all chorus,

"Hadhla! Hadhla!"

Eventually, I used the word too.

One day, they broke the news to me.

"We made it up."

Incredulous, I asked them,

"You mean, it's not a real word??"

"No, you think it's real?" they said, chuckling.

"Yeah!"

"When you muntah it sounds like hadhla, that's why we said hadhla," H explained, apparently very proud of himself for fooling me.

On the other hand, they also propagated the word muntah to non Malay speaking people.

I was holding Baby Z when he spit up, and if I wasn't mistaken, the Arab lady sitting with them exclaimed,

"Muntah, muntah!"

I didn't realize it at the time, but after we got home, I got to thinking and I am pretty sure she said 'muntah'.

She obviously had been talking with the kids. Oh boy!