mouwadhef موظف
Tunisian Derja · noun
“mouwadhef” (موظف) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning civil servant.
Meanings
- civil servant
- employee, salaried worker
Usage
Mouwadhef refers first of all to a public-sector worker, in a ministry, a town hall or an administration. In everyday usage, it also applies to any office employee. The forms are mouwadhfa in the feminine and mouwadhfin in the plural. The word comes from Standard Arabic but is fully used in speech. Depending on the context, it can evoke job security, which families value, or bureaucratic slowness. The term el wadhifa ("the post, the public job") belongs to the same family.
Example
خوه موظف في البلدية
khouh mouwadhef fel baladiya
“His brother is a civil servant at the town hall.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “mouwadhef” but also “mowadhaf”, “mouwadhaf” and “mwadhef”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.