7amd حامض
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“7amd” (حامض) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning sour, acidic.
Meanings
- sour, acidic
- lemon (l7amD)
- gone off (milk)
Usage
7amD describes an acidic taste: an unripe fruit, a yogurt, a sauce. The feminine is 7amDa. With the article, l7amD also means the lemon, the usual word in Morocco for this fruit. Hence l7amD m3ella9, the preserved lemon used in tajines. Applied to milk, 7amD means it has turned. This is not necessarily lben, which is deliberately fermented. So you have to rely on context to tell the adjective "sour" from the noun "lemon."
Example
الحليب ولا حامض
l7lib wla 7ameD
“The milk has gone sour.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7amd” but also “7amed”, “hamd” and “7amad”. 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.