zamil زميل
Moroccan Darija · noun
“zamil” (زميل) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning colleague.
Meanings
- colleague
- classmate
Usage
Zamil comes from Standard Arabic, but it has become well established in Moroccan usage. It is heard mostly in school and work contexts: zamil diali f l9ism (my classmate), zamil f lkhedma (a coworker). The feminine is zamila. The register is somewhat more formal than familiar words like sa7bi (my friend) or drari (the guys), which are used more readily among close people. The pitfall is to assume that zamil implies friendship. It expresses first of all a working or studying relationship.
Example
راه زميل ديالي فالقسم
rah zamil diali fl9isem
“He's a classmate of mine.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “zamil” but also “zamile” and “zmil”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.