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خي

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

North Levantine Arabic

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Pronunciation

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This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!

Etymology 1

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

Noun

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خي (ḵayym (plural إخوة (ʔiḵwe) or إخوات (ʔiḵwāt), feminine إخت (ʔiḵt))

  1. (Lebanon) brother
    Synonym: أخ (ʔaḵḵ)
Usage notes
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  • 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

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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 خَيي (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

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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...