خي

North Levantine Arabic

Etymology 1

From a diminutive of Arabic أَخ (ʔaḵ). Compare also بي (bayy, “father”) vis-à-vis Arabic أَب (ʔab).

Noun

خي • (ḵayy) m (plural إخوة (ʔiḵwe) or إخوات (ʔiḵwāt), feminine إخت (ʔiḵt))

1. (Lebanon) brother

   Synonym: أخ (ʔaḵḵ)

Usage notes

• Curiously, خيات (ḵayyāt) is only a valid plural of إخت (ʔiḵt, “sister”), even though the rhyming word بي (bayy, “father”) takes the plural بيات (bayyāt).

Etymology 2

Possibly from Arabic خَيْر (ḵayr, “good, goodness”, noun), making it a doublet of North Levantine Arabic خير (ḵayr /⁠ḵayr, ḵēr⁠/). The ر (r) would have been sporadically deleted before monophthongization became widespread.

Comparable South Levantine Arabic خوي (ḵoy, same meaning) is harder to explain in this manner, but if not a sporadic vowel shift from خَيّ (ḵayy) it could be a reduction of a diminutive *خويّ (ḵwayy). This would in turn be either derived directly from خَيّ (ḵayy) or descended from *خوير (ḵwayr), itself a diminutive of خير (ḵayr).

Interjection

خي • (ḵayy)

1. relief! (expressing pleasure with a sudden absence of stress or noise)
   • 2005, Stavro Jabra, التمثيل الناقص [The missing representative]‎^[1], Lebanon, archived from the original on 2019-11-11:

     خَيّْ... خلصنا من أَول جنرال...

     ḵayy... ḵluṣna min ʾawwal jinirāl...

     Thank goodness... we've gotten rid of the first general...