jrad جراد
Tunisian Derja · noun
“jrad” (جراد) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning locusts, grasshoppers.
Meanings
- locusts, grasshoppers
- spiny lobster (jrad lba7r)
Usage
Jrad refers to locusts or grasshoppers, especially in swarms: it is a collective noun, used without a plural. Figuratively, it describes a crowd that invades a place and devours everything in its path. The expression jrad lba7r ("sea locust") refers to the spiny lobster, and sometimes the lobster, on menus and in fish markets. For an English speaker, beware of this expression: it does not refer to an insect but to a prized and expensive crustacean.
Example
الجراد كلا الزرع الكل
ejjrad kla ezzar3 lkol
“The locusts ate all the crops.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “jrad” but also “jred” and “jarad”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “jrad” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “locusts, grasshoppers (collective)”: jrad in Moroccan.