tasa طاسة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“tasa” (طاسة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning bowl, cup (often metal).
Meanings
- bowl, cup (often metal)
- drink, drinking session (slang)
Usage
Tasa refers to a bowl or cup, traditionally metal, used for drinking water or for pouring water in the hammam or when washing hands. It is not the equivalent of the French "tasse", a coffee cup, which is more often called kas or fenjal. In slang, t-tasa refers to alcohol and drinking: chreb chi tasa, chi wa7ed m3a t-tasa (a drinker). This second sense is colloquial, even frowned upon, and depends heavily on context. The plural is tasat.
Example
عطيني شي طاسة ديال الما
3tini chi tasa dyal l-ma
“Give me a bowl of water.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tasa” but also “tassa”, “taasa” and “tasse”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “tasa” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “bowl, cup (often metal)”; “empty head (figurative, pejorative)”: tassa in Tunisian.