chahm شحم
Tunisian Derja · noun
“chahm” (شحم) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning animal fat.
Meanings
- animal fat
- mechanical grease, lubricant
Usage
Chahm refers primarily to animal fat, the fat of meat or the fat of mutton, distinguished from the flesh. It is also used for mechanical grease: chahm mta3 karhba (car grease), used by mechanics for bearings and moving parts. It is not the usual word for a person's plumpness, for which adjectives like samin (fat) are used instead. It does not refer to oil either, which is zit. Context distinguishes the culinary sense from the mechanical one.
Example
نحّي الشحم من اللحم قبل ما تطيبو.
na77i e-chahm mel l7am 9bal ma ttayybou.
“Remove the fat from the meat before cooking it.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “chahm” but also “cha7m”, “shahm” and “chahem”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.