Of all the words I have seen in darija, the darija word ras is one that I have seen used in more expressions than any other word. The word means head so coming from an English-speaking background, it makes sense that the word would have so many expressions. I’m sure we all of heard some expressions with the word head in it. We will explore these a bit later but for now let’s look at some of definitions of the darija word ras.
- Head
- Front
- Summit
- Peak
- Top
- End (extremity)
- Source
- Beginning
- Point
- Cape (good hope)
- Ability
- Knack
- Good Judgement
That’s quite a bit of translations for ‘ras’. It seems that most of these definitions have a pattern of being ahead or at the top. When keeping this in mind hearing the word ‘ras’ in a sentence gives you some indication of what is trying to be conveyed.
When looking at the expressions the word ‘ras’ seems to have a pattern of defining oneself. The word ‘ras’ is used as a verb and is conjugated as such. The reason I bring this up is to explain that the expressions can be changed based on person pronouns (he, she, you, I, they, us, etc…). Let us now take a look at the expressions.
| 3ad fa9 b rasu | He’s finally realized what’s going on |
| 9al m3a rasu | He said to himself |
| Kunt f dar gir rasi ras khay | Just my brother and I were home |
| 9ulha l rasek | Look who’s talking! You should talk! |
| Had shi gir mn rasi l rasek | This is just between you and me |
| B rasu | Alone |
| Dar + b rasu | To play (fake) |
| 3mel + b rasu | To play (fake) |
| Dyal rasu | Independent (free) |
| Faye9 m3a rasu | Sharp (difficult to put over) |
| Mn rasu l rasu | On one’s own |
| M3a rasu | Used expletively (often implying alone) |
| Rasu | Self |
| Ras l mal | Capital (financial) |
| Ras l 7anut | Various spices (used in seasoning foods) |
| Rasu t9il | To be slow witted |
| Rasu khfif | To be quick witted |
| Ras l 3am | New Years Day (Beginning of the new year) |
| Rfed r-ras m3a | To give a hard time to |
| Rfed r-ras m3a | To be prejudiced against |
| Rfed r-ras m3a | To have it in for |
| 3la r-ras w l 3yn | with pleasure |
Works Cited
Sobleman, H., and Richard S. Harrell. A Dictionary of Moroccan Arabic: Moroccan-English. Washington, D.C.: Harvey Sobelman and Richard S. Harrell, 1963. Print.