khiyar خيار
Algerian Darja · noun
“khiyar” (خيار) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning cucumber.
Meanings
- cucumber
- the best, the elite (khiyar ennas)
- choice
Usage
Khiyar is the common word for cucumber, used at the market as in the kitchen: "slata b-el khiyar" (cucumber salad). The word is also used, in a completely different construction, to designate the best of a group: "khiyar ennas" means "good people, the best", often to flatter or thank someone. Context removes the ambiguity: before a plural noun (ennas), it is the laudatory sense. The sense of "choice" exists but belongs rather to a formal register.
Example
شريت الخيار والطماطم باش ندير سلاطة.
chrit el khiyar w tomatich bach ndir slata.
“I bought cucumber and tomatoes to make a salad.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khiyar” but also “5iyar”, “khyar”, “khiar” and “5yar”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “khiyar” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “cucumbers (collective)”; “choice, the best (of)”: khyar in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “cucumber”; “choice, option”: khyar in Tunisian.