bagra بقرة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“bagra” (بقرة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning cow.
Meanings
- cow
- fat woman (pejorative, informal)
Usage
The word bagra means the cow, a farm animal raised for milk and meat. In Tunisia, the q of standard Arabic is generally pronounced g: one says bagra, and rarely ba9ra. The usual plural is bgar. Cow's milk is 7lib bagra. The word appears in compounds such as bagra hollandiya, the Dutch dairy cow breed, very common on farms. Used for a person, especially a woman, the word becomes a hurtful mockery about weight. It is best avoided in this sense.
Example
عندو زوز بڨرات في الحوش
3andou zouz bagrat fel 7ouch
“He has two cows in the yard.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bagra” but also “ba9ra”, “baqra” and “begra”. 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.