Glossary · 15 terms you’ll hear
Palabras who travel.
Learning them won’t make you pass for Moroccan, but it will open your eyes to one thing: each is a cultural window. Try using them with your hosts.
Riad
/ ri-yad /
Arabic
Traditional house with inner courtyard and garden, usually without external windows.
Usage: The medina’s oldest private houses are riads from the 17th–19th centuries.
Medina
Arabic
Old walled city. Every historic Moroccan city has its own.
Usage: The Fez medina is the largest pedestrian zone in the world.
Hammam
Arabic
Public steam bath; in its private version, a three-hour ritual with black soap, ghassoul and argan oil.
Usage: Khadija runs the only hammam in Marrakech with home-made ghassoul.
Tagine
/ ta-yin /
Arabic
Slow-cooked dish in a conical clay pot. By extension, the pot itself.
Usage: Lahcen cooks six different tagines a year, by season.
Zellige
/ ze-lli-ye /
Arabic
Glazed-ceramic geometric mosaic, characteristic of Andalusi-Moroccan architecture.
Usage: The riad’s zellige is 19th-century, not industrial.
Tadelakt
/ ta-de-lakt /
bereber
Wall coating of lime polished with olive oil, waterproof and warm to the touch.
Usage: The hammam walls are in antique green tadelakt.
Kilim
bereber
Flat-woven (knotless) tapestry by Berber women of the Atlas.
Usage: Every kilim tells the family dialect of whoever wove it.
Djellaba
/ ye-la-ba /
Arabic
Long traditional hooded garment, unisex, wool in winter and cotton in summer.
Usage: Mohamed wears a raw-linen djellaba on his calls.
Imlil
bereber
Berber village in the High Atlas, base camp for Toubkal ascents.
Usage: Hassan lives in Imlil at 1,800m.
Erg Chebbi
Arabic
Sea of dunes in southeast Morocco, with dunes up to 150m.
Usage: Erg Chebbi is where we pitch the tent on the Sahara trip.
Ghassoul
/ ras-sul /
Arabic
Mineral clay from the High Atlas used as a natural soap in the hammam.
Usage: Only Khadija uses home-made, non-industrial ghassoul.
Argan
bereber
Oil from a tree endemic to southwest Morocco, edible and cosmetic.
Usage: Culinary argan is served with almond and honey: amlou.
Souk
Arabic
Traditional market. Each guild occupies a street.
Usage: The copper souk in Fez hasn’t changed in 800 years.
Inshallah
Arabic
God willing. A construction of the future and of modesty before what’s to come.
Usage: All Moroccan planning is built on inshallah.
Bab
Arabic
Gate. Medinas are named by their gates: Bab Doukkala, Bab Boujloud.
Usage: Bab Doukkala is the northwest gate of the Marrakech medina.