bled: French word for village, from the Arabic.
bicot: Racist, insulting French slang term for Arab.
caoua: French slang word for coffee, from the Arabic.
djebel: Arabic word for a mountainous area.
Evian Accords: Agreement signed March 18, 1962, in Évian-les-Bains, France, by representatives of the provisional government of Algeria and the French government, ending the Algerian War. France recognized Algeria as an independent state.
fellagha: From the Arabic: fighter for Algerian independence; shortened by the French to “fell” (plural of the Arabic fellagh, “one who cuts off roads”).
gendarmes: Members of a national police force in France under the jurisdiction of the army. They serve as the police in rural areas and on highways, much like state troopers in the United States.
harkis: Algerian Arabs who fought with the French Army against the Algerians in their war for independence.
Kabyle: Someone from Kabylia, a mountainous region in Algeria.
kémias: North African hors d’oeuvres.
méchoui: A large, festive lamb roast in which a whole sheep is barbecued. From the Arabic.
mechta: Arabic word for small village.
OAS: Abbreviation for Organisation de l’Armée Secrète, an illegal, far-right nationalist movement violently opposed to Algerian independence that carried out acts of terror in both Algeria and France in the 1960s.
Oradour-sur-Glane: Town in France where, in June 1944, German SS troops massacred the entire population: 642 men, women, and children.
Verdun: Town in northern France, and the site of the bloodiest battle of World War I, ending in a French victory in 1917. The battle resulted in more than 360,000 French and 335,000 German casualties.
wadi: From the Arabic: a ravine made by a dried-out riverbed.