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Etymology for certain darja terms and place names in Morocco
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GTAIVisbest is in Morocco
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/r/morocco س-س-س-س-سلام عليكم يا

I've always been interested in etymology, and since Arabic is a fairly new language, etymology of Arabic words are usually very well traceable and satisfying to discover the original meaning of. However, there are some Morocco-specific terms that baffle me, as I can't begin to think of how they could descend from or be related to fus7a arabic. Most of these terms have the "g" sound in them, making tracing them back to Arabic even harder.


  1. "Gawri". I get called this every day, and it means "foreigner" as far as I can tell. Intuition tells me it comes from كوري, although it could also come from قوري or جورس. Bears no resemblance to the classical term "Ajnabi"

  2. "Agadir". The name of the large city most likely comes from اكادير, however, due to the morphing of the "al" with the first letter, it could also come from "الكادير" or even "القادير", both of which mean nothing. The closest possible meaning is "مقادير" which translates to "amounts". Not really a suitable explanation. Another explanation is that, since soussi berber language sounds like "tagadirt zmagadrt" with the "a-g-d" root being very common, the name could just be directly taken from the local berber word, much like "Marrakesh" coming from "Amur n'akush".

  3. "Agdal". An expensive neighborhood in Rabat. Also a new neighborhood (expansion happened during or immediately after the colonial era), so the name probably didn't have much time to morph into this strange result. Again, intuition tells me that it must come from اكدال, and through merging with the first letter it may ultimately derive from الكدال. Again, however that doesn't mean anything. Due to the relative unimportance of Agdal itself, we may never know its true meaning.

  4. "hdar", as in "to speak". This bears no resemblance to the classic "atkallum", and I can't find a definition for either هدار or هذار, however I did find a definition for هذر meaning "to chatter", so I assume it comes from there.

  5. The verb "baghit", as in "to want". Ah, this is the ultimate question. This verb follows grammatical rules that are foreign even to Arabic itself, making it only a bigger mystery. Bears no resemblance to the original "Urid", "اريد", and instead of following typical arabic structure for verbs, a.k.a. "انا بغيت, انت بغيتك, هو بغيتو", it follows a strange tense: "انا بغيت, انت بغيتي, هو بغا". Definitely a strange verb with a non-arabic structure.


If any of you have any ideas about these terms, or terms of your own that you wish you could define, let's all share it UP so we can try to define and trace as much of these words as possible

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8 years ago