bakhil بخيل
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“bakhil” (بخيل) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning miserly, stingy.
Meanings
- miserly, stingy
Usage
Bakhil describes a person who is reluctant to spend or share. Its feminine is bakhila, its plural bokhala. The reproach is blunt, but it is not a vulgar insult. It is often heard jokingly between friends, about the one who never pays for the coffee. The word also works as a noun: had lbakhil, "this cheapskate". There are other colloquial ways of saying the same thing, but bakhil is understood everywhere and in all registers.
Example
صاحبك بخيل بزاف، عمرو ما خلص قهوة
sa7bek bakhil bzaf, 3omro ma khelless 9hwa
“Your friend is very stingy, he has never paid for a coffee.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bakhil” but also “ba5il”, “bakhila”, “bkhil” and “bakheel”. 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.