khabbez خباز
Tunisian Derja · noun
“khabbez” (خباز) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning baker.
Meanings
- baker
- keeper of a communal oven
Usage
Today, khabbez refers to the baker who makes and sells bread. The word also evokes the oven keeper of the past: he ran the kouch, the neighborhood oven, and baked for payment the bread that families kneaded at home. The feminine khabbeza refers to a woman who makes bread, often traditional bread, but it is rare. For the place, one says koucha, or mokhbza for a modern bakery. Be careful not to confuse khabbez, the profession, with khobz, bread, or with the verb khabbez, "to bake bread".
Example
هبطت للخبّاز نجيب زوز خبزات
hbatt lel khabbez njib zouz khobzet
“I went down to the baker to get two loaves of bread.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khabbez” but also “5abbez”, “5abez”, “khabez” and “5abbezz”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “khabbez” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “baker”: khebbaz in Moroccan.