zoufri زوفري

Tunisian Derja · adjective

“zoufri” (زوفري) is an adjective in Tunisian Derja meaning thug, rude, ill-mannered.

Meanings

1. thug, rude, ill-mannered
2. rough, without manners (sometimes admiring)

Usage

Zoufri describes a person with thug-like manners: impolite, combative, lacking restraint. The word is also used as a noun: ya zoufri. The feminine is zoufriya. The term is informal and generally pejorative. It is not a crude insult, but it can offend. In football supporters' talk or among friends, it sometimes takes on an admiring nuance: a zoufri game is a rough, fighting game, a zoufriya victory is won without elegance but with guts. Only context tells whether it is a reproach or a compliment.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “zoufri” but also “zofri”, “zoufry”, “zouffri” and “zoufrii”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “zoufri” on the Arabic keyboard

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “labourer, manual worker”; “unattached man, bachelor”: zoufri in Algerian.