rabi رب
Tunisian Derja · noun
“rabi” (رب) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning God, the Lord.
Meanings
- God, the Lord
- master, head (of a household)
- my God (invocation)
Usage
The word rab means God. In everyday use, it is almost always said with the possessive, rabbi ("my Lord"), which comes up constantly in wishes, prayers and exclamations: rabbi ysahhel ("may God make it easy"), rabbi m3ak ("God be with you"), ya rabbi. The bare form rab appears mainly in fixed phrases such as amin ya rab, or in the sense of "head" in rab el 3ayla ("head of the family"). Note: some expressions in which rab is combined with an insult are blasphemous and shock many people.
Example
لطف يا ربّي
Lotf ya rabi
“Lord, spare us!”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “rabi” but also “rab”, “rabbi”, “rabb”, “rabe” and “raby”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find رب and رابي, all the same word.
Type “rabi” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “God, the Lord”: rabbi in Algerian.