ghriba غريبة
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“ghriba” (غريبة) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning strange (feminine).
Meanings
- strange (feminine)
- strange thing
- ghriba, Moroccan shortbread cookie
Usage
Ghriba is the feminine of ghrib and agrees with a feminine noun: khadma ghriba, qessa ghriba. Used alone, it works as an exclamation or a noun: ghriba!, "that's odd!". The same word also names a traditional small, dry, cracked cookie served with tea, especially during festivals. It appears as ghriba d louz (with almonds) or ghriba bahla. For the cookie, the spelling ghoriba is often seen, and context almost always tells the two meanings apart.
Example
هادي خدمة غريبة
hadi khadma ghriba
“This is a strange job.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghriba” but also “ghoriba”, “ghreeba”, “ghariba” and “ghribat”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “ghriba” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “strange, weird (feminine)”; “foreign, unfamiliar”: ghriba in Algerian.