jrada جرادة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“jrada” (جرادة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning grasshopper, locust (single insect).
Meanings
- grasshopper, locust (single insect)
Usage
A feminine unit noun derived from the collective jrad: it refers to a single grasshopper or locust. For counting, this singular is used, for example jouj jradat, "two grasshoppers". The word is known to every child thanks to the traditional nursery rhyme jrada mal7a, sung as a game. In everyday life, it is used for the insect you see jumping in the grass, in summer or in the countryside. To talk about an invasion or a swarm, the collective jrad is used instead.
Example
شفت جرادة كبيرة ف الجردة
chft jrada kbira f ljerda
“I saw a big grasshopper in the garden.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “jrada” but also “jrade”, “jerada” and “jradat”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “jrada” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “grasshopper, locust”; “a single locust (collective jrad)”: jrada in Tunisian.