زي

زَيّ • (zayy) m

1. verbal noun of زَوَى‎ (zawā) (form I)

• Middle Persian *zyw- (zīw, “life; lifestyle, manner”), cognates with Persian زی‎‎ (zi-, “to live”), Ancient Greek ζω (zō), and English zoo; ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *gʷíh₃woh₂.
• Proto-Semitic *zwy- (“to contract or pull tight, to tie on garb, to equip or supply what is needed, to outfit or furnish, to fit or fasten something on, to deck or adorn, to dress up or decorate, one's appearance or what is displayed”). Bi-consonantal pair found in related roots like Aramaic זיו‎ (ziw, “appearance”), Akkadian 𒍣𒄿𒈬 (zīmu, zīwu, “appearance, looks”), Akkadian 𒍝𒈾𒉡 (zanānu, “to provide, to furnish, to outfit”), Hebrew זִו‎ (ziv, “a spring month; month where trees are adorned with blossoms”), زَوَى‎ (zawā, “to wrinkle, to contract”).

زِيّ • (ziyy) m (plural أَزْيَاء‎ (ʾazyāʾ))

1. costume, uniform, suit, dress
2. (in the plural) fashion, vogue

• زَيَّا‎ (zayyā, “to dress”)
• تَزَيَّا‎ (tazayyā, “to dress oneself”)

• “زي” in Almaany
• Fraenkel, Siegmund (1886) Die aramäischen Fremdwörter im Arabischen (in German), Leiden: E. J. Brill, page 55
• Freytag, Georg (1833), “زي”, in Lexicon arabico-latinum praesertim ex Djeuharii Firuzabadiique et aliorum Arabum operibus adhibitis Golii quoque et aliorum libris confectum (in Latin), volume 2, Halle: C. A. Schwetschke, page 268
• Wehr, Hans; Kropfitsch, Lorenz (1985), “زي”, in Arabisches Wörterbuch für die Schriftsprache der Gegenwart (in German), 5th edition, Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, published 2011, →ISBN, page 538

Probably from Arabic زِيّ‎ (ziyy, “clothing, way of dressing, appearance”), thus originally “in the dress or appearance of”. Compare Algerian Arabic بحال‎ (bḥal, “like”, literally “in the state of”) from بِ‎ (bi) and حَال‎ (ḥāl), Iraqi Arabic شلون‎ (šlōn, “how”, literally “[in] what colour”) from شَيْء‎ (šayʾ) and لَوْن‎ (lawn).

زَيّ • (zayy)

1. like