mo9awil مقاول

Moroccan Darija · noun

“mo9awil” (مقاول) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning entrepreneur, business owner.

Meanings

1. entrepreneur, business owner
2. building contractor

Usage

Mo9awil refers to a person who runs their own business. It very often also refers to the building contractor who takes charge of a construction site. The expression "mo9awil dati" corresponds to the Moroccan auto-entrepreneur (self-employed) status, which is in frequent use today. The feminine is mo9awila and the plural is mo9awilin. The register is neutral, with an administrative tinge. In colloquial speech, for a building job, you also hear just "lmo9awil". Do not confuse this word with mo9awala, which refers to the company itself.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mo9awil” but also “mo9awel”, “m9awel”, “moqawil” and “mu9awil”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.

Type “mo9awil” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “building contractor”; “subcontractor, labor supplier”: m9awel in Tunisian.