souf صوف
Tunisian Derja · noun
“souf” (صوف) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning wool.
Meanings
- wool
- sheep's fleece
Usage
Souf means wool, both the raw material shorn from the sheep and the yarn that is knitted or woven. One says khit souf for "wool yarn" and jezzet souf for a whole fleece. The word often comes up in the context of crafts: weaving blankets and rugs, making the jebba or the burnous. A woollen garment is called mta3 souf ("of wool"), for example pull mta3 souf. It is a collective noun, used without a plural. It belongs to the everyday language, in the countryside as in the city.
Example
أمي تخدم بالصوف في الشتاء.
ommi tekhdem bel souf fel chta.
“My mother works with wool in winter.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “souf” but also “sof” and “suf”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.