fermli فرملي
Algerian Darja · noun
“fermli” (فرملي) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning nurse (male).
Meanings
- nurse (male)
Usage
Fermli is the adapted loanword from French "infirmier", in common use in Algeria. The feminine is fermliya, "nurse (female)". The most frequent plural is fermliya, sometimes fermliyat for the feminine. The word distinguishes nursing staff from the doctor, tbib: at the hospital or clinic, people readily say "machi tbib, fermli" (not a doctor, a nurse). In Standard Arabic or in official documents, momarrid is used, but in speech fermli clearly dominates. Informal to neutral register, understood everywhere.
Example
الفرملي هو اللي دارلي الپيقورة
lfermli howa li darli la piqûre
“It's the nurse who gave me the injection.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “fermli” but also “fremli”, “farmli” and “fermliya”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “fermli” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “nurse (male)”: frmli in Moroccan.