dheb دهب
Moroccan Darija · noun
“dheb” (دهب) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning gold (precious metal).
Meanings
- gold (precious metal)
- gold jewelry
Usage
Dheb, often with the article (ddheb), means gold as a metal and, by extension, gold jewelry, which plays a big part in weddings and family savings. To say "made of gold", use the construction "dyal dheb": "sertla dyal dheb" (a gold necklace). It is also used figuratively, for a person or thing that is precious: "had lweld dheb" (this boy is pure gold). Online, the h is often replaced by the digit 8 (d8eb).
Example
مشاتلي سرتلة ديال دهب
mchatli sertla dyal dheb
“I lost my gold necklace.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “dheb” but also “dhab”, “dhb”, “d8eb” and “d8b”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.