sfar صفار

Moroccan Darija · verb

“sfar” (صفار) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning to turn yellow.

Meanings

1. to turn yellow
2. to turn pale (face)
3. egg yolk

Usage

Sfar is a colour verb: it expresses the change to a colour, like hmar (to turn red) or khdar (to turn green). It takes no object. It is said of leaves, fruit or teeth that turn yellow. For a person, wejhu sfar means "he turned pale", from fear, illness or shock. The present is ysfar, for example "kaysfar". The same word is also used as a noun for egg yolk, often in the form sfar l-bid, as opposed to the white. Only context distinguishes the verb from the noun. The simple adjective "yellow" is sfer, feminine safra.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sfar” but also “sfaar”, “sfarr” and “sfer”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “sfar” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “pallor, pale complexion”; “egg yolk”: sfar in Tunisian.