khelsa خلصة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“khelsa” (خلصة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning pay, salary.
Meanings
- pay, salary
- wages for work
Usage
Khelsa (kholsa is also heard) refers to the money one receives for work, generally the monthly salary. It is a colloquial and very common word, formed on the same root as khalles, "to pay". One says l-khelsa dyali (my salary) and khdit l-khelsa (I got my pay). The expression awwel khelsa, "first salary", is frequent. The more neutral and more administrative word is l-ojra. Khelsa does not refer to a one-off payment, such as settling a purchase. For that meaning, lkhlass is used.
Example
خبيت على واليديا أول خلصة ليا كون ڭلتها ليهوم كون داوها ليا
5ebit 3la walidiya awel 5olssa liya koun glthaa lihom koun dawha liya
“I hid my first salary from my parents: if I had told them, they would have taken it from me.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khelsa” but also “5elsa”, “kholsa”, “khalsa”, “5olsa” and “5elssa”. 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.