What does “مشمشي” mean in Lebanese Arabic?

الألوان في غرفة النوم والحمام باللهجة اللبنانية

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A1 Arabic listening practice · Levantine Arabic · Picked for people who know a little

💡 Did you know?
مشمشي (mshmashi)
Arabic fruit-to-colour word
“apricot-coloured”; the fruit مشمش turned into a colour adjective with the suffix ـي

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?

75%
of words are in the top 2,000 most common Arabic words
Most of the words in this video are common Arabic words.

How common in Arabic

73.8%
Top 1,000
75%
Top 2,000
98.8%
Top 5,000

How common in spoken Arabic

100%
Top 1,000
100%
Top 2,000
100%
Top 5,000

Harder words in this video

These words are harder than A1. Here is what they mean.

التخت
5×
Not in top 5,000
bed
المغسله
5×
Not in top 5,000
sink
ازرق
4×
Not in top 5,000
blue
منشف
4×
Not in top 5,000
towel

Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · OpenSubtitles 2018 (HermitDave) (spoken). These numbers are close, not perfect.

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