Hawara, or Haberer, is a term used in Austria and Bavaria that describes a good friend.
Etymology The term comes from and literally means friend or buddy.Leo Rosten: Jiddisch. Eine kleine Enzyklopädie. dtv, München 2006, S. 133.Wilhelm Gesenius: Hebräisches und Aramäisches Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament, Leipzig 1895, S. 221 (online).Vgl. Günter Vallaster, Ulrich Ammon: Variantenwörterbuch des Deutschen – Die Standardsprache in Österreich, der Schweiz und Deutschland sowie in Liechtenstein, Luxemburg, Ostbelgien und Südtirol. De Gruyter, Berlin/New York 2004, , S. 320.
Usage It's used widely in Austria and Bavaria and can mean best friend, drinking buddy () or comrade. In Vienna, the term is also used to refer to one's lover, where it's written and pronounced Habschi and in Styria Hawi.
However, hawara has also gained a negative meaning, with terms like Hawarei or Mochthawara standing for political nepotism. Hawara itself is also used negatively on its own.
When Wolfgang Teuschl translated the New Testament into Viennese German in 1971, he gave his version the name .
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