How to say "toy, doll" in Arabic
CognateMeaningtoy, doll
Arabic · Modern Standard Arabic
dumyaדמיה
دمية
Hebrew · Modern Hebrew
bubaبُوبَا
How the two words are related
Same Semitic root, same meaning — you already know this word.
Arabic root
د-م-يHebrew root
ד-מ-הDumya and Hebrew דמות (demut, "image, likeness") share the root ד-מ-ה/د-م-ي, "to resemble" — the weak final radical lands as ي in Arabic and ה in Hebrew, the regular pattern. A toy, at heart, is a little likeness of something real: the same root that gives Hebrew its "image of God" (בצלם דמותו) gives Arabic its doll.
Related Hebrew word:דמותdemutدِمُوت
Learn it
On the street
How people actually say it in the spoken dialects, where it differs from the standard word.
Egyptian · Cairo and the Nile Delta
Cairo says liʿba for a toy; a doll is ʿarūsa.
In a phrase
a small doll
Plural
broken plural, defective pattern — cited in the everyday spelling; the classical indefinite form takes tanwin: دُمًى (duman)