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TheEnglish termJew is originally derived from theHebrew termYehudi (lit. 'ofJudah'), which passed intoGreek asIoudaios and intoLatin asIudaeus, in turn evolving into theOld French termgiu after the letter "d" was dropped.[1] A variety of related forms are found in early English from about the year 1000, includingIudea,Gyu,Giu,Iuu,Iuw, andIew, which eventually developed into the modern English word for theJewish people.
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According to theBook of Genesis,Judah (יְהוּדָה,Yehudah) was the name of the fourth son of the patriarchJacob. During the Exodus, the name was given to theTribe of Judah, descended from the patriarch Judah. After the conquest and settlement of the land ofCanaan, Judah also referred to the territory allocated to the tribe. After the splitting of theunited Kingdom of Israel, the name was used for the southernkingdom of Judah. The kingdom now encompassed the tribes of Judah,Benjamin andSimeon, along with some of the cities of theLevites. With the destruction of the northernkingdom of Israel (Samaria), the kingdom of Judah became the sole Jewish state and the termy'hudi (יהודי) was applied to all Israelites.
The termYehudi (יְהוּדִי) occurs 74 times in theMasoretic text of the Hebrew Bible. The plural,Yehudim (הַיְּהוּדִים) first appears in2 Kings 16:6 where it refers to a defeat for the Yehudi army or nation, and in2 Chronicles 32:18, where it refers to the language of the Yehudim (יְהוּדִית).Jeremiah 34:9 has the earliest singular usage of the wordYehudi. InEsther 2:5–6, the name "Yehudi" (יְהוּדִי) has a generic aspect, in this case referring to a man from thetribe of Benjamin:
The name appears in the Bible as a verb inEsther 8:17 which states:
In some places in theTalmud the wordIsrael(ite) refers to somebody who is Jewish but does not necessarily practiceJudaism as areligion: "An Israel(ite) even though he has sinned is still an Israel(ite)" (TractateSanhedrin 44a). More commonly the Talmud uses the termBnei Yisrael, i.e. "Children of Israel", ("Israel" being the name of the third patriarchJacob, father of the sons that would form the twelve tribes of Israel, which he was given and took after wrestling with an angel, seeGenesis 32:28–29[2]) to refer to Jews. According to the Talmud then, there is no distinction between "religious Jews" and "secular Jews."
Inmodern Hebrew, the same word is still used to mean both Jews and Judeans ("of Judea"). InArabic the terms areyahūdī (sg.),al-yahūd (pl.), and بَنُو اِسرَائِيلbanū isrāʼīl. TheAramaic term isY'hūdāi.
TheSeptuagint (reputedly a product ofHellenistic Jewish scholarship) and other Greek documents translatedיְהוּדִי,Yehudi and theAramaicY'hūdāi using theKoine Greek termIoudaios (Ancient Greek:Ἰουδαῖος; pl.ἸουδαῖοιIoudaioi), which had lost the 'h' sound. TheLatin term, following the Greek version, isIudaeus, and from these sources the term passed to other European languages. TheOld Frenchgiu, earlierjuieu, hadelided (dropped) the letter "d" from the LatinIudaeus. TheMiddle English wordJew derives fromOld English where the word is attested as early as 1000 in various forms, such asIudeas,Gyu,Giu,Iuu,Iuw,Iew. The Old English name is derived from Old French. The modernFrench term is "Juif/Juive" (m/f).[3]
Most European languages have retained the letter "d" in the word for "Jew". Etymological equivalents are in use in other languages, e.g.Jude inGerman,judeu inPortuguese,jøde inDanish andNorwegian,judío inSpanish,jood inDutch. In some languages, derivations of the word "Hebrew" are also in use to describe a Jew, e.g.,Ebreo inItalian and Spanish,Ebri / Ebrani (Persian:عبری/عبرانی) inPersian and ЕврейYevrey inRussian.[4] (SeeList of Jewish ethnonyms for a full overview.) The German wordJude ([ˈjuːdə]) iscognate with the usual Yiddish word for "Jew",Yid,[5] but not directly; it is, on phonological grounds, more probably cognate with the variant formJüde (perhaps aback-formation from the feminineJüdin and the adjectivejüdisch), which has been obsolete in Standard German since the 18th century, but was the principal form used byMartin Luther, and can still be found in street names (Jüdenstraße orJüdengasse) in traditionally Lutheran north German cities such asBerlin (two instances) orGöttingen. The direct cognateYud, seen in the illustration on the right, is far less frequent.
According to the Klein dictionary by rabbiErnest Klein, the Hebrew word for Jew, Judean, or JewishHebrew:יְהוּדִי which is "yehudi" in Hebrew orig. meant 'member of the tribe Judah', later also 'member of the Kingdom of Judah'. When after the conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.E. only the Kingdom of Judah survived, yehudi יֽהוּדִי came to denote 'Jew', resp. 'Jewish'. cp. 'Judaic', 'Jew', 'Chueta' and 'Yiddish'.[6]
According to rabbiMarcus Jastrow's dictionary,yehudi is defined as "worshipper of one God" and rejecting idolatry.
Meg. 12b קרי ליה י׳ אלמא מיהודה וכ׳ he is called Y'hudi (Esth. II, 5), which would indicate that he belongs to the tribe of Judah, and yet he is called ish y'mini &c.?, v. נִימוֹס. Ib. 13a ... ואמאי י׳ ... שכל הכופר בע"ז נקרא י׳ but why is he designated as Y'hudi? Because he disowned idolatry; for whosoever disowns idolatry, is called a Jew (ref. to Dan. III, 12); Esth. R. to II, 5 לפי שייחד ... נקרא י׳ לומר י׳ יחירי because he professed the unity of God, he was called Y'hudi, meaning to say, a Y'hudi, a believer in One God.
— Marcus Jastrow, Jastrow's Dictionary[7]
Inmodern English and other contemporary languages, the term "Israelite" was used to refer to contemporary Jews as well as to Jews of antiquity until the mid-20th-century. Since the foundation of theState of Israel, it has become less common to use "Israelite" of Jews in general. Instead, citizens of the state of Israel, whether Jewish or not, are called "Israeli", while "Jew" is used as an ethno-religious designation.
The wordJew has been used often enough in a disparaging manner byantisemites that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries it was frequently avoided altogether, and the termHebrew was substituted instead (e.g.Young Men's Hebrew Association). The German counterpartJude was extensively used during theNazi period as a part of its anti-semitic campaign (eventually leading togenocide).[8] The word has become more often used in a neutral fashion, as it underwent a process known asreappropriation.[9][10] Even today some people are wary of its use, and prefer to use "Jewish".[11][12] Indeed, when used as an adjective (e.g. "Jew lawyer") or verb (e.g. "to Jew-down someone"[13]), the termJew is purely pejorative. According toThe American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition (2000):
It is widely recognized that the attributive use of the nounJew, in phrases such asJew lawyer orJew ethics, is bothvulgar and highly offensive. In such contextsJewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use ofJew as a noun, a practice that carries risks of its own. In a sentence such asThere are now several Jews on the council, which is unobjectionable, the substitution of a circumlocution likeJewish people orpersons of Jewish background may in itself cause offense for seeming to imply thatJew has a negative connotation when used as a noun.[14]
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