zira3a زراعة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“zira3a” (زراعة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning agriculture.
Meanings
- agriculture
- cultivation, planting
- organ transplant
Usage
Zira3a comes from Standard Arabic. It is used mainly to talk about agriculture as a sector or activity: news, the economy, studies. In everyday speech, working the land is more often called lfla7a, and a peasant farmer is fella7. In the medical field, the word is also used for a transplant: zira3a dyal lqelb, "heart transplant," zira3a dyal lkla, "kidney transplant." Context always makes it clear which of the two senses is meant. The register is neutral, slightly formal.
Example
راه الفسفات مهم في زراعة
rah lfosfat mohim fzira3a
“Phosphate is important for agriculture.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “zira3a” but also “ziraa3a”, “zera3a” and “zira3”. 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.