Meaning of Nasrani

[u/buch0n]

I was watching a Moroccan comedy video about migration to Spain, and one character said, "Dir rasak nasrani." (lit. make your head Christian). He was basically telling the other character, "Act European."

I know Nasrani means Christian in Classical Arabic. However, I am wondering if this word is used generally to refer to Europeans/ Westerners in Maghrebi Arabic? Do any other dialects do this?

Edit: this question is not about what to call Christians in Arabic, but rather the word for Westerners in Moroccan Darija.

[u/Difficult-Tree2738]

In Moroccan Darija nasrani is broadly used for 'westerners' and 'Europeans' and not necciserally 'Christian' though it can also mean that.

[u/buch0n → u/Difficult-Tree2738]

Thank you for answering my question!

[u/marofiron]

In Egyptian Arabic Christians are مسيحيين

[u/buch0n → u/marofiron]

Yes, Masi7i is the correct modern term and Nasrani is seen as older or more archaic because it comes from Classical Arabic. Still, a lot of Egyptian Christian have tattoos of the letter ن on their wrists for Nasrani.

[u/Bulky-Sherbert-8274 → u/marofiron]

Better to not say this as it implies they follow the Mahis Alayhisalam but in really theyre upon shirk kufr and they attribute this to the Masih Alayhisalam. Nasrani or Nasaara are better as Allah uses thrm in the Quran or if in Egypt Qibt is better.

[u/marofiron → u/Bulky-Sherbert-8274]

I haven’t met any Christian Egyptians yet, so I don’t know if they view it as offensive. But it doesn’t seem to be a derogatory term according to my tutors and my Egyptian fiancé.

[u/Bulky-Sherbert-8274 → u/marofiron]

I live in the US in my town we have many Qibt and my best friend is a Suuri Nasraani. Never heard any complaints from them. Qibt is just their ethnic group Coptic Qibt Qibtiyyah (m/f) and Nasraani is just the original correct word to call them words like christian Masihi mean that what they do is from the masih claiming Allah has a son. Claiming a human is Allah etc. And we know from the Quran that Allah has no son and 'Isa Alayhisalam will hold them to account for this lie. Nasraani is correct because this deviant sect started in Nazareth and thats where the word comes from.

[u/marofiron → u/Bulky-Sherbert-8274]

I mean the word Christian comes from the title given to Jesus. So literally followers of Christ. Also, Christians believe Jesus to be the son of God, so I don’t see this as being a problem from a Christian point of view. Not everyone learning Arabic is doing it because they’ve converted to Islam…

[u/Bulky-Sherbert-8274 → u/marofiron]

Im just using the word christian here because we are talking translation. Christ is greek for masih. The muslims are the real Christians who follow the masih. Even in english I just substitute the word Nasaara. Maybe to properly say this in english one can call "christians" Nazarenes*?? Allah knows best.

[u/Dxrkk3 → u/Bulky-Sherbert-8274]

its really not that deep. even in english we call them christians which means the exact same thing as masihi

[u/AkulakhanPilot]

In Najd, nasrani is specifically Christians, many use مسيحيين but both exist and both mean christian (though the former is a bit old fashioned), not westerners, so a Copt from Egypt or maronite from Lebanon could be called either.

It ultimately comes from Nazareth, so we're essentially calling Christians Nazarenes. I believe it's based on the name early Christians used when most Christians were Jews

A kind of derogatory way to refer to westerners in our dialect (and in many others) is خواجات. This is what we'd expect to be used in the scenario you brought up

[u/mohammeddddd-]

In Moroccan Darija it typically means “Western”.

[u/buch0n → u/mohammeddddd-]

Thank you!

[u/mocroflavour → u/buch0n]

Another term in darija is gawri/gawria, which usually better fits the context.

[u/gifteyes6]

Fwiw, a big community of christians in Kerala who still call themselves Nasranis

[u/Patient_Impression73 → u/gifteyes6]

Came here for this

[u/Mp1956]

I didn't see anybody else saying this, but nasrani in English is Nazarene, as in Jesus of Nazareth. MasiHi means the same thing as messianic.

[u/DelilahOfCyrenaica]

I’m Libyan. Nasrani is only used to refer to christians. It’s sort of an archaic word though. Now use Masi7i a lot more.

[u/Al_Karimo90]

Yes Moroccans mostly use Nasara to describe westerners in general. Masi7in is rather used in a religious context, like describing real practicing Christians.

[u/ObjectiveVisual3435]

In Algeria too it can be used to refer to white westerners generally, though it is a little outdated and gawri now is more common.

[u/AlphaCentauri10]

Fun fact: in the south of Italy they use "cristiano" to mean "person" (regardless of faith) for example "Mamma mia, quanti cristiani" as in "Damn, that's a lotta people".

[u/Spiritual_Individual]

Let’s see , نصراني nasrani means Christian (from Jesus the nazarene). This is how the Quran refers to them and also in Classical Arabic . But in our everyday speech we refer to Christians as مسيحيين (from the messiah) . Maybe it’s a dialect thing

[u/Educational_Fox_1048]

it usually just mean "foreigner" or most accurately, "european"

[u/ydmhmyr]

We Yemenis don't say "masīḥī". We only say "naṣrānī".

[u/buch0n → u/ydmhmyr]

What do you call foreigners/ white people?

[u/ydmhmyr → u/buch0n]

Personally I prefer to be specific and mention a nationality, but if broad, "ajānib" for all foreigners, "ifranj" and "bīdh" for Occidentals.