How to say "brown" in Arabic

New word

Meaningbrown

Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic

بُنِّيّ

bunniyyבני

بني

Hebrew · Modern Hebrew

חום

khumخُوم

How the two words are related

New word

No Hebrew relative — learn it fresh.

Arabic root

ب-ن-ن

From بُنّ (bunn), 'coffee beans' — brown is literally 'coffee-colored' in Arabic. Purely by coincidence, the bare spelling بني looks exactly like Hebrew בני, 'my son' — same letters, unrelated words.

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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

قهْوِي

qehwiקהוי

Darija's brown is qehwi, coffee-colored.

In a phrase

عُيُون بُنِّيَّة

ʿuyūn bunniyyaעיון בניה

brown eyes

Feminine

بُنِّيَّة

bunniyyaבניה