casbah

English

Alternative forms

• cusbah, kasbah, qasbah

Etymology

Borrowed from Arabic قَصَبَة (qaṣaba).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkaz.bɑː/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæz.bɑ/

Noun

casbah (plural casbahs)

1. The fortress in a city in North Africa or the Middle East.
2. (by synecdoche) The medina, the older part of a city in North Africa or the Middle East.
   • 1982, Joe Strummer, Rock the Casbah:

     The king called up his jet fighters / He said, "You better earn your pay / Drop your bombs between the minarets / Down the casbah way"

3. (slang) A person's house or flat/apartment.
   • 2021, Erin L. Jungdahl, Meet Cute Chihuahua:

     He gave me an earth-shattering kiss and whispered, “Come to my casbah and let me ply you with cupcakes.” […] We made good time getting to his apartment.

Translations

the fortress in a city in North Africa or the Middle East

• Arabic: قَصَبَة f (qaṣaba)
• Bulgarian: касаба́ f (kasabá)
• Esperanto: kasbaho, citadelo
• Finnish: kasba
• French: casbah (fr) f, kasbah (fr) f
• Japanese: カスバ (kasuba)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kasbah

• Ottoman Turkish: قصبه (kasaba)
• Persian:

  Classical Persian: قَصَبَه (fa) (qasaba)

  Iranian Persian: قَصَبِه (fa) (ğasabe)

• Portuguese: casbá f
• Russian: ка́сба (ru) f (kásba)
• Tajik: қасаба (qasaba)
• Turkish: kasaba (tr)

Anagrams

• Bachas, Schaab, bachas

French

Alternative forms

• kasbah

Etymology

From Arabic قَصَبَة (qaṣaba).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kas.ba/

• Audio:

  (file)

Noun

casbah f (plural casbahs)

1. casbah

Further reading

• “casbah”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.