hrawa هراوة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“hrawa” (هراوة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning thick stick, cudgel.
Meanings
- thick stick, cudgel
- truncheon
Usage
Hrawa means a thick, heavy stick used for hitting or defending oneself. It is not a simple walking stick, which is usually called 3kkaz. The word appears mainly in stories of fights, threats or police intervention. The hrawa is then the truncheon. The common plural is hrawat. Remember that the word has a violent connotation: it is not used for an ordinary stick picked up from the ground. In that case, people usually say 3wed.
Example
جا شاد هراوة فيدو
ja chad hrawa f ydo
“He arrived with a cudgel in his hand.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “hrawa” but also “8rawa”, “hraoua” and “herawa”. 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.