3amla عملة

Tunisian Derja · noun

“3amla” (عملة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning deed, stunt, blunder committed.

Meanings

1. deed, stunt, blunder committed
2. currency

Usage

In everyday usage, 3amla (from 3mal, "to do") means a specific thing someone has done, most often a blunder or a dirty trick: 3mal 3amla ("he did something stupid"), chnowa el 3amla hedhi ? ("what's this stunt?"). The tone is informal and often disapproving or mocking. The sense of "money, currency" also exists, pronounced more like 3omla, in a more formal register: el 3omla es-sa3ba ("foreign currency"). Context is usually enough to tell the two senses apart.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “3amla” but also “3mla”, “amla” and “3omla”. 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 “3amla” on the Arabic keyboard

In Moroccan Darija

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “currency”: 3omla in Moroccan.