What does “مشمشي” mean in Lebanese Arabic?
الألوان في غرفة النوم والحمام باللهجة اللبنانية
A1 Arabic listening practice · Levantine Arabic · Picked for people who know a little
Arabic builds colour adjectives straight from fruit names by adding the suffix ـي — the same ending that turns لبنان into لبناني. مشمش is apricot; add ـي and you get مشمشي: “apricot-coloured,” a warm peachy-orange. The pattern is everywhere once you see it: تفاحي (apple-red), ليموني (lemon-yellow), رماني (pomegranate-red). One suffix, a whole palette of colour words.
In the clip, a room-by-room colour tour of a Lebanese bedroom and bathroom opens with “لون الحيطان مشمشي” — the walls are مشمشي, and so is the bed frame. The fruit مشمش itself is ancient in the Levant; its name likely traces back to Akkadian. The colour adjective appears in both formal Arabic (فستان مشمشي — an apricot dress) and everyday Levantine speech, making it one of the most immediately useful colour words to carry out of an A1 vocabulary lesson.
How common are the words?
How common are the words in this A1 Arabic listening practice video?
How common in Arabic
How common in spoken Arabic
Harder words in this video
These words are harder than A1. Here is what they mean.
Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.