dam دم
Tunisian Derja · noun
“dam” (دم) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning blood.
Meanings
- blood
- temperament, character (in idioms)
Usage
Dam or dem is the ordinary word for blood, in both the medical and everyday senses: a bleeding wound, a blood test (tahlil dam), a blood donation. With a suffixed pronoun, the consonant is doubled: dammi, dammek, dammou. The word appears in very frequent expressions about a person's character. Dammou khfif, literally "his blood is light", means he is likeable and funny. Dammou thqil, "his blood is heavy", means he is annoying. An English speaker should avoid translating these expressions word for word.
Example
وقت شدّ انتي تتكلّم وانا نكتب بالدمّ ,
wa9t chéddè inti titkellem wene néktib biddem ,
“The moment you start talking, I write with blood.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “dam” but also “dem”, “damm” and “demm”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “dam” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “blood”; “anger (in tla3 lih ddem)”: dem in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “blood”; “blood tie, descent”: dem in Algerian.