khabir خبير
Moroccan Darija · noun
“khabir” (خبير) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning expert, specialist.
Meanings
- expert, specialist
- connoisseur, experienced person
Usage
The noun khabir is borrowed from Standard Arabic. It is well understood and used in darija, mainly in the media, about experts interviewed on television, or ironically. The usual construction is khabir f + field: khabir f lkora, "football expert". The feminine is khabira and the plural khobara. In informal conversation, expressions like fahem f, "knowledgeable about", or m3allem, "master of the trade", are often preferred. Used about someone close, the word can take a mocking sense, "Mr. know-it-all".
Example
هادا خبير فالطوموبيلات
hada khabir f tomobilat
“This guy is an expert in cars.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khabir” but also “5abir”, “khbir”, “5bir” and “khabeer”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “khabir” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “expert, specialist”; “bit of news, good news”: khbir in Tunisian.