Ars (slang)


Ars, or Arsim is a derogatory Hebrew slang term for the Israeli stereotype of a low-class young man who wears sleazy clothing and flashy jewelry. The female counterpart is an Arsit, formed by adding the Hebrew feminine ending "it" to the Arabic word "Ars" – which means a Pimp.

History

The Ars subculture traditionally was associated with young Jews of more recent MENA extraction, but in recent years has expanded to a broader range of backgrounds. Another term used for women is 'Frecha', from the word 'Frech' which is the German/Yiddish word for being uselessly fresh, inclined in the female form by means of the suffix 'a' .
It might have stuck stereotypically to the tacky strand of non-Ashkenazi Jewesses due to the female Arab first name 'Frekha', which was frequent in the 1950s and the 1960s, during the large immigration wave from Morocco to Israel. "Frecḥa" is nowadays used in reference to intellectually shallow girls of all backgrounds, like bimbo or airhead in English.
In Arabic the word ars has several meanings:
In Israeli parlance, the genre is called arsawwat, although the Arabic plural of "Ars" is "Arsat".