wcham وشم
Moroccan Darija · noun
“wcham” (وشم) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning tattoo.
Meanings
- tattoo
- traditional women's tattoo
Usage
Lwcham means tattoo in general. It also spontaneously evokes the traditional tattoos of older, mostly rural women: geometric patterns on the chin, forehead or hands. For modern tattoos, many young people simply say "tatouage" or "tattoo", but wcham is still understood and used. You say 3ndha lwcham, "she has a tattoo". The related verb is wchem, "to tattoo". The subject can be sensitive: tattoos are often judged negatively on religious grounds, and the word may provoke comments in a conservative setting.
Example
جدّتي عندها الوشم فالدقن
jeddti 3ndha lwcham f dqen
“My grandmother has a tattoo on her chin.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “wcham” but also “wchem”, “wchm” and “ouchm”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.