9enfoud قنفود
Moroccan Darija · noun
“9enfoud” (قنفود) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning hedgehog.
Meanings
- hedgehog
- porcupine (in some regions)
Usage
9enfoud means the hedgehog, an animal well known in the Moroccan countryside. The plural is 9nafed. Depending on the region, the word can also mean the porcupine, called "rbib" or "durban" elsewhere. The hedgehog has a place in folk beliefs and in the traditional pharmacopoeia of herbalists. As a joke, someone with spiky hair is said to look like a 9enfoud. A withdrawn or prickly person is also described as "bhal l9enfoud". The word is informal and neutral.
Example
لقيت قنفود فالجردة
l9it 9enfoud f jerda
“I found a hedgehog in the garden.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “9enfoud” but also “9nfoud”, “9anfoud”, “9enfod” and “qenfoud”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.
Type “9enfoud” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “hedgehog”; “person with messy hair”: 9anfoud in Algerian.