jrad جراد
Moroccan Darija · noun
“jrad” (جراد) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning locusts, grasshoppers (collective).
Meanings
- locusts, grasshoppers (collective)
Usage
A collective noun meaning locusts or grasshoppers, in particular the swarms of desert locusts that ravage crops. The singular, for a single insect, is jrada. Like other collectives, jrad generally agrees as masculine singular: ja jrad, "the locusts have come". The word mainly evokes the invasions that hit the countryside and the south of the country. Figuratively, a crowd that devours or overruns everything can be compared to jrad. The word covers both locusts and grasshoppers.
Example
الجراد كلا الزرع كامل
ljrad kla zzra3 kamel
“The locusts ate all the crops.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “jrad” but also “jrade” and “jerad”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “jrad” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “locusts, grasshoppers”; “spiny lobster (jrad lba7r)”: jrad in Tunisian.