gayed قايد
Tunisian Derja · noun
“gayed” (قايد) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning caid, local administrative chief.
Meanings
- caid, local administrative chief
- family name element
Usage
Gayed, or qayed in a more formal pronunciation, means the caid. He was a representative of authority, responsible for administering a district and collecting taxes there. The word therefore mainly evokes the past, the Beylical and colonial administration. Today it is found in family names and place names, hence its frequency in the corpus. It should not be confused with the slang sense of French "caïd", a gang leader: in Tunisia, the word refers first to the administrative office.
Example
جدّو كان قايد في وقت البايات
jeddou kén gayed fi wa9t el beyét
“His grandfather was a caid in the time of the beys.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “gayed” but also “qayed”, “kayed” and “gaid”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.