tma3 طمع
Moroccan Darija · noun
“tma3” (طمع) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning greed, avarice.
Meanings
- greed, avarice
- covetousness, eagerness to profit
Usage
Tma3 refers to the excessive desire to have more, especially money or advantages. The word is always pejorative and often appears in moral judgments and sayings. A person is called tmma3 (greedy). The verb from the same root, tme3 f, means to covet something or to hope to profit from it: tme3 f flousou, he eyed his money. The word is also used for gluttony or misplaced insistence, for example in a child who always asks for more.
Example
الطمع ما فيه خير
t-tma3 ma fih khir
“Greed brings nothing good.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tma3” but also “tama3”, “tme3”, “tam3” and “tm3”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “tma3” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “greed, avarice”; “covetousness, self-interested hope”: tma3 in Tunisian.