סְתַלְבֵּט

The word "מִסְתַּלְבֵּט" (mistalbet) was first documented in Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) slang in 1977, when writer Meir Uziel presented it in his column in "Maariv" as one of the new slang words originating in the military. Uziel defined it as "having an abnormally good time." In the 1980s, the word spread in Hebrew language with the meaning "enjoying idleness." In later usage, when the verb is used in conjunction with "על..." (on...), it took on the meaning of "working over, stringing along" or "mocking...". The origin of the word is the Arabic verb "استلبط" (istaləbaṭ), which is mainly used in Egyptian Arabic. In Egypt, if someone tries to take advantage of you or is lazy and lets you do all the work, they say "انت بتستلبط عليا؟" (inta bitistalbaṭ ʿalayya?), meaning "Are you messing with me?" The Arabic verb itself is derived from the noun "سلباط" (silbāṭ), which originally meant "parasite, a person who lives at the expense of others." The earliest documentation of the Arabic word is from 1881, in Dutch orientalist Reinhart Dozy's dictionary "Supplement aux dictionnaires arabes" (Supplement to Arabic Dictionaries), where the verb is defined as "to fraudulently obtain something that is not yours." The origin of the word "silbāṭ" itself may be in the Greek word "τσαμπατζής" (tsambatzis), which was a term for a stowaway on a ship or another type of "free rider." The Greek word itself is composed of the word "τσάμπα" (tsamba, "free of charge") and the Greek suffix "-τζής" (-tzis, an occupational suffix). Interestingly, if this is indeed the origin, then the Greek word "τσάμπα" is itself borrowed from the Turkish word "caba" (free of charge), which according to Turkish researchers originates from an Arabic word from the root j-b-y, which was used as a name for a type of tax in the Ottoman Empire.