m7arma محرمة

Algerian Darja · noun

“m7arma” (محرمة) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning handkerchief or paper tissue.

Meanings

1. handkerchief or paper tissue
2. headscarf, kerchief

Usage

M7arma refers to the handkerchief, made of cloth in the past and today mostly of paper. The plural is m7arem. The word is common and neutral. For example, you say a3tini m7arma to ask for a tissue. Depending on region and generation, it can also refer to a scarf or a head kerchief. Pitfall: in writing, the same Arabic spelling also corresponds to the Standard Arabic adjective mu7arrama, "forbidden, illicit". That is the meaning in most of the corpus sentences. Only pronunciation or context can tell the two apart.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “m7arma” but also “ma7rma”, “ma7rame”, “mehrma” and “m7erma”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.

Type “m7arma” on the Arabic keyboard

How to say “handkerchief” in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian