serbay سرباي
Moroccan Darija · noun
“serbay” (سرباي) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning waiter (café, restaurant).
Meanings
- waiter (café, restaurant)
- bartender
Usage
Srbay refers to a café or restaurant waiter. It is the usual word in Morocco, in a familiar to neutral register. The feminine is srbaya. For the plural, one hears srbaya or srbayat depending on the speaker. To state one's job, one uses the construction khddam srbay, "I work as a waiter". To call the waiter in a café, one does not say "ya srbay": one prefers a form of address such as "chef" or "khouya". In a bar or cabaret setting, the word can also mean the bartender. Remember that it is an occupational noun, with no pejorative nuance.
Example
خدام سرباي في المطعم
khedam serbay f restaurant
“I work as a waiter in a restaurant.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “serbay” but also “srbay”, “sarbay”, “serbai” and “srbai”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.