bouj3ran بوجعران
Moroccan Darija · noun
“bouj3ran” (بوجعران) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning cockroach.
Meanings
- cockroach
- beetle, large black insect
Usage
Bouj3ran refers to a black, crawling insect considered dirty. Most often it is the cockroach that infests houses, and sometimes a beetle or another large coleopteran. The word is informal and clearly expresses disgust. Depending on region and family, the cockroach may also go by other names, so the exact meaning varies from speaker to speaker. It is often used in the singular with a collective sense, for example 3ndi bouj3ran f dar, "I have cockroaches at home".
Example
لكلب ديالي مريض, زيد عليها عندي بوجعران فلپرتمة!
lklb dyali mriD, zid 3liha 3ndi boj3ran flpartma!
“My dog is sick, and on top of that I have cockroaches in my apartment!”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bouj3ran” but also “boj3ran” and “boujaaran”. 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.