Semitic
adj, name ·Uncommon ·College level
Definitions
- 1 a major branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family wordnet
- 1 Of or pertaining to a subdivision of Afroasiatic Semitic languages: Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Syriac, Akkadian, Hebrew, Maltese, Tigrigna, Phoenician etc. not-comparable
- 2 Of or pertaining to the Semites; of or pertaining to one or more Semitic peoples. not-comparable
"On the other hand, scholars say that the Philistines were an Indo-European people not related to the Semitic Palestinians."
- 3 Of or pertaining to the Semites; of or pertaining to one or more Semitic peoples.; Of or pertaining to the descendants of Shem, the eldest of three sons of Noah. not-comparable
- 4 Of or pertaining to the Semites; of or pertaining to one or more Semitic peoples.; Of or pertaining to the Israeli, Jewish, or Hebrew people. not-comparable
- 5 Of or pertaining to the Semites; of or pertaining to one or more Semitic peoples.; Of or pertaining to any of the religions which originated among the Semites; Abrahamic. not-comparable
"Thus we trace ever and again the similarities which are to be found among the Semitic religions."
- 1 of or relating to or characteristic of Semites wordnet
- 2 of or relating to the group of Semitic languages wordnet
- 1 The Semitic languages in general.
Example
More examples"The Arabian peninsula has long been accepted as the original Semitic Urheimat by a majority of scholars."
Etymology
From Semite + -ic (18th century), from German semitisch, from Ancient Greek Σήμ (Sḗm), from the Hebrew שֵׁם (Šēm, “Shem”), the name of the eldest son of Noah in biblical tradition (Genesis 5.32, 6.10, 10.21), considered the forefather of the Semitic peoples. Perhaps derived from Akkadian 𒈬 (šumu, literally “name" or "son”). The word was coined and first applied to the Semitic languages by August Ludwig von Schlözer in 1781.
Related phrases
More for "semitic"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.