sardil سرديل
Moroccan Darija · noun
“sardil” (سرديل) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning sardine (fish).
Meanings
- sardine (fish)
Usage
Collective noun meaning sardine, a fish widely eaten in Morocco and caught in large quantities off its coasts. Like other food names, sardil is mostly used as a collective: one says kla sardil, "he ate sardines", with no plural marker. It is prepared grilled, fried or as balls (kwiwrat d sardil) with chermoula. It is a popular and cheap dish, which explains the jokes about eating it too often. The price of a kilo of sardines is sometimes used as an everyday benchmark when talking about the cost of living.
Example
اليوم غادي نشويو السرديل فالدار
lyoum ghadi nchwiw sserdil f dar
“Today we're going to grill sardines at home.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sardil” but also “serdil”, “sserdil” and “srdil”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.