khouf خوف
Moroccan Darija · noun
“khouf” (خوف) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning fear, dread.
Meanings
- fear, dread
Usage
Lkhouf refers to fear, dread. It is used in an everyday register, a little more general or reflective than lkhla3, which rather evokes sudden fright. It appears in expressions such as "fih lkhouf" (he is fearful) and "mn lkhouf" (out of fear). The corresponding verb is khaf, ykhaf (to be afraid), which is more frequent than the noun in speech. Pitfall in written arabizi: "xof" or "khof" written online often stands for chouf (look), since x sometimes represents the sound ch. Context makes it possible to tell the two apart.
Example
راه ماشي خوف نيت
rah machi khawf niit
“It's not really fear.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khouf” but also “khawf”, “5ouf”, “khaouf” and “5aouf”. 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 “khouf” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “fear, dread”; “fear of God (khouf rabbi)”: khouf in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “fear, dread”: 5ouf in Tunisian.