חִרְבּוּן

The word "חִרְבּוּן" (chirbun) is a relatively new Hebrew slang word used both to describe excrement and to describe the act of defecation. The word was probably coined among students of the first classes of the Herzliya Gymnasium in Tel Aviv in the early 20th century. This word is derived from the root ch-r-b, from which also comes the biblical word "חָרְבָּה" (charbah, ruins), but it is more likely that it is related to the Arabic word "חָרָא" (chara) which means excrement, which returned to use in spoken Hebrew during the same period. The word "chirbun" may have been created as a hybrid between the Arabic "chara" and a typical Hebrew action word suffix (-on), or as an attempt to create a more "refined" form of the cruder word "chara." The word "chirbun" has become one of the common slang words in spoken Hebrew for describing excrement, especially in the language of children and youth, and is also used in expressions such as "chirbun shel mazal" (bad luck) or "chirben al..." (expression of contempt or rejection of something).