Khirba

Khirba (Arabic: خربة‎‎ "ruin"), khirbat, khirbeh or khirbet, in Palestine, and mainly in specific dry areas such as that of Hebron, mostly refers to a secondary or satellite village on the outskirts of an agricultural village; it can alternatively refer to an abandoned village, uncultivated land or land unsuited for cultivation, or a ruin. The Palestinian pastoralist in the South Hebron region use the word in the sense of small village," and attach it to the name of the sites where they live.

Hamlets known as khirba became widespread in Palestine in the early 20th century. A khirba was an area used intermittently during the year, primarily during the plowing or harvest seasons. It consisted of a few huts on outlying agricultural land that were inhabited on a seasonal basis. As a defense against Bedouin raids, many villagers in Ottoman Palestine built homes in the central hills and descended to the plains seasonally to sow crops and harvest them: thus, a "mother" village in the hills might have a "daughter" village in the plains. These seasonal satellite villages began to grow as the population drifted westward. From the 1920s onward, many of them developed into independent villages. In cases where the khirba was established very close to the main village, the khirba sometimes became a neighborhood within the village.

In the Hebron area, the Arabic term khirba refers to land that was uncultivated or unfit for cultivation, and thus of low value; so this term is distinct from the similar-sounding Hebrew khurbah/khurbat, meaning "ruin".

...
Wikipedia