stihlak ستهلاك
Moroccan Darija · noun
“stihlak” (ستهلاك) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning consumption.
Meanings
- consumption
Usage
Stihlak is a masculine noun borrowed from Standard Arabic. It is common in speech, especially about electricity, water, fuel or purchases in general. It is often heard in the phrases stihlak dyal lma ("water consumption") and stihlak dyal lmazout ("diesel consumption"). The derived form stihlakiya describes everyday consumer goods: lmawad stihlakiya. The Latin spelling varies a lot depending on whether the h is written with an 8 or with an h, and on whether or not the initial vowel i is written. For the verb, use stehlek.
Example
الستهلاك ديال الضو طلع بزاف هاد الشهر
stihlak dyal dow tla3 bzzaf had chher
“Electricity consumption went up a lot this month.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “stihlak” but also “istihlak”, “sti8lak” and “isti8lak”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.