rokba ركبة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“rokba” (ركبة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning knee.
Meanings
- knee
Usage
Rokba means the knee. It is usually pronounced rokba or roukba. The plural is rkeb or rkaib depending on the region. It is used in body and health vocabulary, for example in woja3 fi rokbti, "my knee hurts". The expression hbat 3la rokbtih means "to get down on one's knees" and is also used figuratively for "to give in" or "to submit". The word is everyday and not at all colloquial. Note the possessive, where a t appears before the suffix: rokbti, "my knee", rokbtek, "your knee".
Example
طحت وجرحت ركبتي
ta7t w jra7t rokbti
“I fell and hurt my knee.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “rokba” but also “roukba”, “rkba”, “rakba” and “rokbaa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “rokba” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “knee”: rokba in Moroccan.