mowddaf موضّف
Moroccan Darija · noun
“mowddaf” (موضّف) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning employee, salaried worker.
Meanings
- employee, salaried worker
- civil servant
Usage
Mwddaf means an employee, in particular a civil servant or an office worker. The spelling with ḍad is a very common variant in informal writing of the standard form, which is written with ẓa; the pronunciation is the same in darija. The feminine is mwddfa and the plural is mwddfin. In everyday use, the word often suggests a stable job, in the administration or a large company: "khddam mwddaf" means having a permanent position. For a laborer or manual worker, khddam is used instead. The word is also used to talk about administrative counter clerks.
Example
باه موضف فالبلدية
bah mwddaf f lbaladiya
“His father is a civil servant at the town hall.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mowddaf” but also “mwddaf”, “mowaddaf” and “mwadaf”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.