diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index 32ac99ef1793..02033e914394 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -221,6 +221,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "futures",
  "half",
  "hashbrown 0.17.1",
+ "libc",
  "num-complex",
  "num-integer",
  "num-traits",
diff --git a/arrow-array/Cargo.toml b/arrow-array/Cargo.toml
index df102c32b0d0..4ec358fe85da 100644
--- a/arrow-array/Cargo.toml
+++ b/arrow-array/Cargo.toml
@@ -45,6 +45,11 @@ ahash = { version = "0.8", default-features = false, features = ["compile-time-r
 [target.'cfg(not(target_arch = "wasm32"))'.dependencies]
 ahash = { version = "0.8", default-features = false, features = ["runtime-rng"] }
 
+# Used by the ffi feature for platform-correct errno values. Excluded on
+# wasm32-unknown-unknown, which has no libc.
+[target.'cfg(not(all(target_family = "wasm", target_os = "unknown")))'.dependencies]
+libc = { version = "0.2", default-features = false, optional = true }
+
 [dependencies]
 arrow-buffer = { workspace = true }
 arrow-schema = { workspace = true }
@@ -63,7 +68,7 @@ all-features = true
 
 [features]
 async = ["dep:futures"]
-ffi = ["arrow-schema/ffi", "arrow-data/ffi"]
+ffi = ["arrow-schema/ffi", "arrow-data/ffi", "dep:libc"]
 force_validate = []
 # Enable memory tracking support
 pool = ["arrow-buffer/pool", "arrow-data/pool"]
diff --git a/arrow-array/src/ffi_stream.rs b/arrow-array/src/ffi_stream.rs
index 815d7c57605d..9a09c3753dd4 100644
--- a/arrow-array/src/ffi_stream.rs
+++ b/arrow-array/src/ffi_stream.rs
@@ -74,10 +74,21 @@ use crate::record_batch::{RecordBatch, RecordBatchReader};
 
 type Result<T> = std::result::Result<T, ArrowError>;
 
+// Errno values returned through the C stream interface, taken from libc so they match
+// the platform the consumer interprets them against.
+#[cfg(not(all(target_family = "wasm", target_os = "unknown")))]
+use libc::{EINVAL, EIO, ENOMEM, ENOSYS};
+
+// wasm32-unknown-unknown has no libc, and no OS to interpret the codes either — any
+// non-zero value works there, so use Linux's.
+#[cfg(all(target_family = "wasm", target_os = "unknown"))]
 const ENOMEM: i32 = 12;
+#[cfg(all(target_family = "wasm", target_os = "unknown"))]
 const EIO: i32 = 5;
+#[cfg(all(target_family = "wasm", target_os = "unknown"))]
 const EINVAL: i32 = 22;
-const ENOSYS: i32 = 78;
+#[cfg(all(target_family = "wasm", target_os = "unknown"))]
+const ENOSYS: i32 = 38;
 
 /// ABI-compatible struct for `ArrayStream` from C Stream Interface
 /// See <https://arrow.apache.org/docs/format/CStreamInterface.html#structure-definitions>