khich خيش
Moroccan Darija · noun
“khich” (خيش) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning burlap, coarse jute cloth.
Meanings
- burlap, coarse jute cloth
- jute sack
Usage
Khich refers to coarse jute cloth, and by extension to an object made from it: a grain sack, a charcoal sack or a rough rag. You say chkara dyal lkhich or khancha dyal lkhich for a jute sack. The word belongs to the vocabulary of the souk, farming and housework. It is common in a concrete, everyday register. It is most often used with the article: lkhich. It has no common figurative meaning.
Example
حط الفحم فالخنشة ديال الخيش
7ett l-fe7m f l-khencha dyal l-khich
“Put the charcoal in the burlap sack.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khich” but also “5ich” and “khish”. 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 “khich” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “burlap, coarse cloth”; “burlap sack”: khich in Tunisian.