alakefik

[langleybaston]

I heard my wife use the word at breakfast today. She certainly caught it from me, and I certainly caught it at RAF Nicosia 1961-64, together with bondoo, gharry and dhoby's itch. [I mean that I had the dreaded itch, and the equally dreaded cure].

Google is surprisingly thin on the etymology and original language/ meaning.

The one commonality is that "its RAF".

Please shrug off your alakefik mode and help me join the d o t s.

[Rossian]

....it came from Arabic heard by chaps in the canal zone, or even earlier like my F-i-L, in RAF Aboukir in the 1930s? He had lots of words like "mahleesh" (I don't care??) which he picked up there. I'm sure there are others. It's Pprune - SOMEONE will know.

The Ancient Mariner

[Dougie M]

LB
I believe it to be Canal Zone Arabic as used by squaddies out in Egypt. "Anem alakefik" when not written in worms backwards means "I couldn't care less"
See Rossian's simultaneous reply. I believe "Maliesh" meant "Ignore that"

[Genstabler]

Means laid back, uncaring, idle, unreliable. Not RAF. It's a relic of empire, like wallah, dhobi, char, dekko, bint, goolie, bundu, etc etc. Used in my family since time immemorial as we were all colonial, military etc.

[langleybaston]

Thank you all.
Interestingly, my dad spent 3 years in the Canal Zone flying his barrage balloons [from ships as well as shore, lots of fun transferring them] and, although he brought back a fair bit of serviceman's language, alakefik was not listed.

I can still count from one to ten, sing all the verses to "King Farouk, King Farouk ....." , express appreciation for a good looking woman, and draw attention to an ugly one, ask for a beer and all the rest.

As you do!

[Genstabler]

Maleesh or however it is spelled we used to mean "tough, so what, forget it".

[Simplythebeast]

I was at RAF Nicosia 1961 to 1964 as a RAF brat as my Dad was an engine basher there. Happy days!

[salad-dodger]

two posts without mentioning being a weather man :D

S-D

[Tankertrashnav]

Well we mostly know that L-B is a weather man, S-D, so he has maybe given up mentioning it!

Funny how your mind works, L-B, when I read the first sentence of your post I had already convinced myself that it was a weather term she had picked up from you, as in "that's an interesting alekefik cloud over Mount Troodos"!

6 months in Aden made me familiar with most of the others mentioned on here, but I confess I never came across alekefik.

[Warmtoast]

L-B

As you're an ex-Met Man and despite thread drift, I thought you'd be interested in the these photos I took at Gan in 1958. No Met Officer at Gan then, just a Met assistant who inflated the weather balloon and tracked it upwards to record the upper winds and passed the details to Katunayake (Negombo) by WT.

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Met%20Baloon%20-%20Adjusted_zps0chp87sz.jpg


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r231/thawes/GAN/Met%20Baloon%20-%20Tracking%20-%20Adjusted_zpsgyh0awyx.jpg

[rlsbutler]

L-B

You have given us a problem. What meaning does your wife wish to convey ?

Genstabler's words are mostly ex-Indian Empire, therefore of Hindi origin and therefore to be found in the classic Hobson-Jobson.

Interestingly a search of a common on-line dictionery of English Arabic slang reveals only two references, which suggests that it is almost a non-word. One of these references is to this very thread.

The other is to the word's use as the base for an email address. That suggests that it has real meaning within the Arabic language. Too difficult for me !

[Dougie M]

According to A tribe of toffs in 1988 "John Kettley is a Weatherman". He is quite alakefik about it

[Pontius Navigator]

Means laid back, uncaring, idle, unreliable. Not RAF. It's a relic of empire, like wallah, dhobi, char, dekko, bint, goolie, bundu, etc etc. Used in my family since time immemorial as we were all colonial, military etc.

On my last cruise I was asked if I wanted a single or double. I said chotapeg; there was a pause followed by ,Ah Hindi.

[rlsbutler]

If I ask at a garage for a chitty, half the time I have to explain what I want

[Herod]

Could it be that someone misheard Kefhalek? "How are you?", or thereabouts, in Arabic.

[Shack37]

TTN

6 months in Aden made me familiar with most of the others mentioned on here, but I confess I never came across alekefik.


I vaguely remember it as meaning laid back, easy going. Maybe cos that´s how it was for us non Rocks who only tooled up when the moon was blue.;)

[Tankertrashnav]

Whereas those of us on the "other 37" were on duty 24/7 (as the modern saying goes) ;)

[langleybaston]

Alakefik seemingly lives on, even if only indifferently, not bothered, laid back, casual, couldn't care less ......

Nobody does alakefik better than Mrs LB when on form.

The polar opposite to alakefik was the "Tourex Ratio" for my National Service airmen met observers.

Known by many names, Ratio = Number of days served divided by number of days remaining, and calculated to three decimal points about once a week. There was a tote of these in the Met Office, as I expect there was elsewhere.

[Danny42C]

In my three and a half years in India in WWII, I never heard "Alakefik", although I'm familiar with all the other Hindi and Arabic words in common Service use.

Didn't "Fikker nay" (spelling ?) mean "Not to worry" ? (having "fik" in common).

D.

[langleybaston]

Warmtoast
thank you for the pictures. I recognise one lad. Lovely posting for POSBIES I am told.

Do I need to decode for anyone?

[Lancman]

Like the vast majority of English speaking people my knowledge of Arabic, for this is certainly an Arabic expression, is purely aural but may I suggest that it's an Anglo-Saxon corruption of two words. Arabic “kiffak”, or more formally “kif hallak” meaning thanks, and “Allah”. So “Allah kiffak” means “thanks be to God”; an expression heard more commonly in English 70 years ago. Nowadays “Insh' Allah” is more often used.

[langleybaston]

Lancman, thank you, that is a believable etymology. I shall adopt it pro tem.

[Rheinstorff]

I think there's an explanation of the term somewhere in George MacDonald Fraser's McAuslan books (McAuslan in the Rough, The General Danced at Dawn or The Sheik and the Dustbin). His understanding was undoubtedly informed by his own service in Libya. I've not read them for a while (they're too funny to bear more than once a decade) but, if I recall correctly, MacDonald Fraser suggests it means 'can't be bothered'.