kham خام
Moroccan Darija · adjective
“kham” (خام) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning raw, unprocessed.
Meanings
- raw, unprocessed
- crude, unrefined
Usage
Kham describes a material that has not been treated or processed: ore, fabric, leather, raw material. It is found mostly in the vocabulary of trade and industry, for example for phosphate, oil or wool. It goes after the noun and agrees with it: khama in the feminine. For raw food, other words are generally used instead, notably for uncooked meat or vegetables. Figuratively, you can say of an inexperienced person that he is still kham, but this usage is less frequent.
Example
راه كايبوع الفسفات خام
rah kaybu3 lfosfat 5am
“They sell raw phosphate.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “kham” but also “5am” and “khaam”. 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.