how to say “urban” in Hebrew

 

עִירוֹנִי
 

 

 
The Hebrew word for city, going back to the earliest books in Bible, is עִיר  . 
 
Already in Mishnaic times, Hebrew began employing עיר to describe the then-novel concepts of urban and municipal – as well as an urbanite (city dweller), rendering the word עִירוֹנִי  .
 
For example:
 
יֵשׁ לָנוּ סִפְרִיָּה עִירוֹנִית.
We have a municipal library.
 
 
and 
 
הָעִירוֹנִים חוֹשְׁבִים שֶׁהֵם יוֹדְעִים הַכֹּל.
(The) urbanites think they know everything.
 
 
Rustic or village dweller is כַּפְרִי  , as expounded upon in this dose of Hebrew.
 
Don’t confuse עירוני with the word for ironic – אִירוֹנִי  . Although the two words sound similar in Modern-Hebrew pronunciation, they mean two different things and are spelled differently. 

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