dabit ضابط
Moroccan Darija · noun
“dabit” (ضابط) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning officer (army, police).
Meanings
- officer (army, police)
- ranking police officer
Usage
Dabit means an officer, military or police, that is, someone with rank, as opposed to an ordinary soldier or policeman. It appears in expressions such as "dabit f l3askar" (officer in the army) or "dabit chorta" (police officer). The word comes from Standard Arabic and has a fairly neutral to formal register; in casual conversation people often just say "lboulis" or "l3askri" without specifying the rank. The plural is "dobbat".
Example
باه كان ضابط فالعسكر.
bah kan dabit fl 3askar.
“His father was an officer in the army.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “dabit” but also “dabet”, “dabite” and “dhabit”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “dabit” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “officer (army, police)”; “ranking officer, policeman”: dhabet in Tunisian.