nokta نكتة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“nokta” (نكتة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning joke, funny story.
Meanings
- joke, funny story
- a joke (not serious)
Usage
Nokta is the usual word for a joke or a funny story; its plural is nokat. One says 7ka nokta ("to tell a joke") or golya chi nokta ("tell me a joke"). With rah ghir, it refers to something that is not serious: rah ghir nokta, "it's just a joke". The derived verb nekket means "to joke around", and a funny person is a mnekket. The word is colloquial and very common in speech, with no particular connotation.
Example
قوليا شي نكتة
golya chi nokta
“Tell me a joke.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “nokta” but also “noukta”, “nukta”, “nkta” and “nekta”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “nokta” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “joke, funny story”; “laughable, unserious thing”: nokta in Tunisian.