Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A member of any of the peoples speaking a Semitic language, including the Arabs, Arameans, Babylonians, Carthaginians, Hebrews, Phoenicians, and many of the peoples of Ethiopia.
  • noun A Jew.
  • noun Bible A descendant of Shem.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A descendant or supposed descendant of Shem, son of Noah.
  • Of or belonging to Shem or his descendants. Also Shemite.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One belonging to the Semitic race. Also used adjectively.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A member of any of a number of peoples of ancient southwestern Asia including the Akkadians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs.
  • noun A descendant of these peoples.
  • noun A member of a modern people speaking a Semitic language.
  • noun A descendant of the biblical Patriarch Shem.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a member of a group of Semitic-speaking peoples of the Middle East and northern Africa
  • adjective of or relating to or characteristic of Semites

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Back-formation from Semitic.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

French sémite, from Late Latin, from Ancient Greek σημ (sêm), from Classical Hebrew שם (šēm, "name"), from Proto-Semitic *shem.

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Examples

  • The term Semite refers to any member of the various ancient and modern peoples originating in that area, including the Akkadians, Canaanites, Phoenicians, Hebrews, and Arabs.

    OpEdNews - Diary: CULTURE OF PALESTINE - VIDEO 2007

  • The term Semite was proposed at first to refer to the languages related to Hebrew by Ludwig Schlözer, in Eichhorn's "Repertorium", vol. VIII (Leipzig, 1781), p. 161.

    The Palestinian Mufti's Deal with Hitler: Kill All the Jews in the Middle East 2007

  • The term Semite was proposed at first for the languages related to the Hebrew by Ludwig Schlözer, in Eichhorn's "Repertorium", vol. VIII

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 13: Revelation-Stock 1840-1916 1913

  • Can someone please inform Rupert, his wife is chinese, he is Jewish and the term Semite means Arab and his son told him off about his same baloney talk.

    WHAT REALLY HAPPENED 2009

  • I hope the article's author knows that the term Semite includes Arabs, so let's get it right.

    Elections - fresh news by plazoo.com 2009

  • Your ilk is hyper-quick to call people anti-semites and other slurs-knowing all along that the vast majority of Jews are not Semites (or Arabs) but are using the term Semite to refer to themselves as a ploy to hoodwink OTHER non-semites (goyem) into believing that they have some God-given right to return to Palestine, from whence they do NOT hale.

    Articles 2009

  • One of the real harms of the campaign to label anyone that disagrees with the politics of the right-wing parties of Israel an Anti-Semite is that when you come across an actual Anti-Semite and label him as such, the term has been diluted so badly that it does not carry the necessary socially ostracizing force.

    Matthew Yglesias » American Public Prepared to Support Israel in Endless War With Arabs 2010

  • Anybody can see how mocking an anti-Semite is different from anti-Semitism.

    Matthew Yglesias » Feel the Kausmentum 2010

  • That Hitler was a rabid anti-Semite is undeniable.

    Time for Ostracism 2008

  • That Hitler was a rabid anti-Semite is undeniable.

    Stromata Blog: 2008

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