How to say "white" in Arabic
Shifted meaningMeaningwhite
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
أَبْيَض
abyaḍאביצ'
أبيض
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
לבן
lavanلَاڤَان
How the two words are related
Shifted meaning
Same root as a Hebrew word, but the meaning drifted over the centuries.
Arabic root
ب-ي-ضHebrew root
ב-י-צThe root b-y-ḍ means white, and its most famous offspring is the egg: Arabic bayḍa and Hebrew beitsa (ביצה) are exact cognates — Arabic ḍād matches Hebrew tsadi. Hebrew kept the egg; Arabic kept the color as well.
Related Hebrew word:ביצהbeitsaبِيتْسَا
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On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Moroccan · Morocco — Casablanca, Rabat, Fes
بْيض
byeḍביצ'Darija colours lose the initial a-: byeḍ, kḥel, ḥmer.
In a phrase
قَمِيص أَبْيَض
qamīṣ abyaḍקמיץ אביצ'a white shirt
Plural
بِيض
bīḍביצ'colors pluralize as CuCC; the root's middle y turns it into bīḍ
Feminine
بَيْضَاء
bayḍāʾביצ'אא