3dham عضم
Tunisian Derja · noun
“3dham” (عضم) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning bone.
Meanings
- bone
- meat bone (cooking)
Usage
3dham means bone, both in the anatomical sense and in cooking. At the butcher's, people often ask for 3dham to flavor a sauce or a chorba. The word is also used as a collective: fih barcha 3dham ("there are a lot of bones in it"). For a single bone, say 3adhma. It appears in figurative expressions: 3dham bark ("nothing but skin and bones", for a very thin person). Spelling varies: the consonant is pronounced [ð̣] in Tunisian, hence spellings with ض or ظ.
Example
الكلب يحب العضم.
el-kalb y7eb el-3dham.
“The dog loves bones.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “3dham” but also “3dhem”, “3adhm”, “3dam” and “adham”. 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 “3dham” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “bone”; “pit, stone (of a fruit)”: 3dem in Moroccan.