9offa قفة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“9offa” (قفة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning woven basket, shopping basket.
Meanings
- woven basket, shopping basket
- groceries, household provisions
- worthless person (informal)
Usage
Very common noun, 9offa. It first refers to the basket woven from alfa grass or palm that people take to the market. By extension, it refers to the groceries themselves: 9offet ramdhan, the Ramadan provisions basket, often handed out as aid. The word appears in expressions about the cost of living: el 9offa wallet ghalya, "groceries have become expensive". In informal, pejorative speech, 9offa or mostawa 9offa describes something or someone as useless, worthless. The French word "couffin" is borrowed from Arabic.
Example
هزيت القفة ومشيت للسوق.
hezzit el 9offa w mchit lel sou9.
“I took the basket and went to the market.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “9offa” but also “9ofa”, “9fa”, “koffa” and “qoffa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.