ghayeb غايب
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“ghayeb” (غايب) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning absent, not there.
Meanings
- absent, not there
- gone for a long time, vanished
- distracted, daydreaming
Usage
Ghayeb means "absent", at school, at work or at a meeting: "lyoum ghayeb" (he is absent today). The forms are ghayba (feminine) and ghaybin (plural). The word is also used of someone you haven't seen for a long time: "fin had lghiba ?" (where have you been?). Figuratively, it describes a distracted person or someone who is elsewhere: "rah ghayeb" (he is daydreaming). The corresponding noun is lghiyab (absence) and the verb is ghab (to be absent, to disappear). In class, ghayeb is often said at roll call.
Example
شكون لي غايب
shkoun li ghayb
“Who is absent?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghayeb” but also “ghayb”, “ghaib” and “ghayib”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “ghayeb” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “absent, not there”; “long gone, no longer seen”: ghayeb in Tunisian.