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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