felfel فلفل
Tunisian Derja · noun
“felfel” (فلفل) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning chili pepper, bell pepper.
Meanings
- chili pepper, bell pepper
- black pepper (ground spice)
Usage
Felfel first means chili pepper and bell pepper, fresh or dried, found everywhere in Tunisian cooking. The variety is often specified: felfel 7lou for sweet pepper, felfel 7ar for hot chili. Black pepper is felfel ak7el, literally "black chili". Dried, ground red chili is called felfel a7mar or felfel zina. The pitfall is always translating it as "pepper": without specification, the word suggests rather chili or bell pepper. It is used as a collective noun, and felfla means a single chili.
Example
حطّ شويّة فلفل أكحل في الشربة.
7ott chwaya felfel ak7el fi echorba.
“Put a little black pepper in the soup.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “felfel” but also “filfil”, “flfl” and “felfil”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.