Earlier today, I was walking down the rainy streets of the unicorn-laced metropolis of Cluj-Napoca when a man stopped me to ask me (in Romanian) for directions to the “Mitropol”. I asked him if he meant the religious term or a casino or what it was as I didn’t know to what he was referring. He kept insisting it was a restaurant close by and seemingly didn’t believe me when I repeated that I didn’t know. Finally I told him, “Habar n-am, domnul” which literally means “habar no I have, sir”. I guess he understood I didn’t know because he staggered off down the street to go ask someone else.

But what is habar and why didn’t I have it? Well in Romanian it’s a word borrowed from the Turkish word for “information” or “news”. Therefore literally I was telling the inquisitive man that I had no information on the subject at hand.

In Romanian the format is usually “habar + nu + to have”, most generally in the first person as “habar n-am” but it could also be conjugated in other ways such as “habar n-are” and the like.

The “feeling” behind this expression, when translated into English, would be equivalent to saying, “I have no freaking clue” or “I don’t have the foggiest idea” or even perhaps “beats the sh*t out of me” or the like. While it isn’t in any way an offensive term, it’s a rather emphatic expression and it’s likely to garner a laugh if “habar n-am” is your first response to someone asking you for directions.

AND NOW YOU KNOW!