Note 193 — Chapter VIII
Reading edition
Sidi originally meant Lord in Arabic. To-day, in Morocco at any rate, it has, like Esquire, fallen from its proud estate, and now about answers to “Mr.” It is used in addressing anyone who has good clothes, the chief class distinction in Morocco, where all are socially equal to an extent unknown in Europe, except in Spain. Sidi was the word from which the Cid took his title.