3lef علف
Moroccan Darija · noun
“3lef” (علف) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning fodder, livestock feed.
Meanings
- fodder, livestock feed
Usage
3lef, generally used with the article (l3lef), refers to the food given to farm animals: barley, straw, hay or industrial feed. It is a word of rural life and the souks. It is heard notably when talking about price rises before Eid or about looking after the sheep: chra l3lef l-l7awli ("he bought fodder for the sheep"). Applied to a person, the usage is pejorative or mocking, since it suggests that they eat like an animal.
Example
غلا العلف هاد العام
ghla l3lef had l3am
“Fodder has gotten more expensive this year.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “3lef” but also “3alaf” and “3laf”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “3lef” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “fodder, animal feed”: 3laf in Tunisian.