skhouniya سخونية
Moroccan Darija · noun
“skhouniya” (سخونية) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning heat.
Meanings
- heat
- fever
Usage
Skhouniya is a feminine noun derived from skhoun, "hot". It refers to heat in the physical sense: that of an object, a room or the sun. It is also used for fever: fih skhouniya, "he has a fever". In this sense you also hear ssokhana. It is found with verbs like mess, "to absorb", or 3ta, "to give off". The word belongs to the everyday, informal register. To talk about summer heat, lḥmana or ssh-sh-mesh are used more often, not skhouniya.
Example
الكحل كيمسّ سخونية
lk7l kimess skhounia
“Black absorbs heat.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “skhouniya” but also “skhounia”, “s5ounia”, “skhoniya” and “s5oniya”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.