I can't afford the Badawi-Hinds,
Not only that, but apparently it is becoming increasingly difficult to locate these days.
so I make do with the old one by Socrates Spiro.
I suspected that was the one you had. I don't have it (but would like to get it), but from what I've heard one needs to be careful when using it as it is old and out of date. Badawi and Hinds, in the introduction to their dictionary, say about it, "Spiro's work [...] despite its merits is now of value only for its intrinsic historical interest and is, understandably enough, inadequate and misleading as a guide to Egyptian Arabic of the present day." They go on to say that many terms given by Spiro have become obsolete, some have changed in sense or form, and many new lexical items and expressions have gained acceptance since his day. I imagine you are aware of all this, but I thought I'd point it out nonetheless, for others who may not know.
Even the Badawi-Hinds dictionary, having been published 23 years ago, with the corpus having been collected in the 15 year period prior to its publication, is starting to show its age a bit, I have noticed.
Perhaps I should undertake the writing of a new Egyptian Arabic dictionary.
Besides "to have orderly habits", it also mentions "to be stylish". Combine it with "to put on airs", perhaps we get something like "genteel"?
Yes, definitely.
Perhaps it's one of those "fad words" that have become more or less obsolete, so Cherine and Azeid have never heard of it.
I had a similar thought, especially since, as you noted, two native speakers have said they have never heard it.
