Kiffer

'Kiffer’ is a French verb derived from the Arabic word kif, or kef, meaning bag, which is employed in the Middle East (Lebanon, Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, and the Cyrenaica region) to describe a bag of fabric in which sheets of cannabis are wrapped in before being beaten to transform them into hashish. Kif is also used in the Middle East to describe the sense of well-being that follows the use of hashish. Transformed into a French verb, kiffer not only designates the action of smoking hashish, but also the pleasure associated with it. The verb has since evolved into its present use in France, where kiffer means to adore, to be absolutely crazy about something or someone.

In France, the word was first used by young generations from the banlieues. The word "banlieue" literally means "suburbs"; however, the word more accurately connotes what in American English is referred to as the inner cities. More recently, the word kiffer has become increasingly popular among teenagers and young adults. Although the rest of the population seldom uses the expression, kiffer is understood by most French people, and is now registered in French dictionaries.

Cultural works, both literary and cinematographic ones, echo this generational usage: Habiba Mahany, for instance, wrote a book entitled Kiffe ta race. This expression has also been used in the United States. In her 2005 New York Times article, Lucinda Rosenfeld reviewed Faïza Guène’s Kiffe Kiffe Tomorrow and defined the word ‘kiffer’: “According to the glossary, the French verb ‘kiffer’ means, more or less, ‘to be really crazy about something.’”

Another illustration of the new word’s usage in the United States is I Kiffe NY–French Urban Cultures, a Festival of 32 events taking place throughout the entire month of October 2008 in New York, organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the United States, in partnership with TRACE Magazine.