ji3an جيعان
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“ji3an” (جيعان) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning hungry, starving.
Meanings
- hungry, starving
- greedy, insatiable (figurative)
Usage
Ji3an means "hungry". It agrees in gender and number: ji3ana in the feminine, ji3anin in the plural. To say "I'm hungry", darija uses an adjective: ana ji3an or rani ji3an. You can also say fiya jjou3, "I have hunger in me". The intensive mjou3 also exists. Figuratively, ji3an can describe a greedy person or one who is never satisfied, for money for example, with a pejorative nuance. The opposite is chab3an, "full".
Example
راني كنت جيعان
rani knt ji3an
“I was hungry, actually.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ji3an” but also “ji3ane” and “jy3an”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “ji3an” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “hungry”; “starving, greedy (figurative)”: ji3an in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “hungry”; “greedy, insatiable (figurative)”: ji3an in Tunisian.