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English
Wikipedia has an article on: JewEtymology
c.1175 (in plural, giwis), from Anglo-Fr. iuw, from O.Fr. giu, from L. Judaeum (nom. Judaeus), from Gk. Ἰουδαῖος (Ioudaios), from Aramaic jehudhai (Heb. y'hudi "Jew," from Y'hudah "Judah," lit. "celebrated," name of Jacob's fourth son and of the tribe descended from him. Replaced O.E. Iudeas "the Jews." Originally, "Hebrew of the kingdom of Judah." Jews' harp "simple mouth harp" is from 1584, earlier Jews' trump (1545); the connection with Jewishness is obscure. Jew-baiting first recorded 1853, in reference to German Judenhetze. In uneducated times, inexplicable ancient artifacts were credited to Jews, based on the biblical chronology of history: e.g. Jews' money (1577) "Roman coins found in England." In Greece, after Christianity had erased the memory of classical glory, ruins of pagan temples were called "Jews' castles."
Pronunciation
- Rhymes: -uː
Noun
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Singular Jew |
Plural Jews |
Jew (plural Jews)
- An adherent of Judaism.
- A person who claims a cultural or ancestral connection to the Jewish people (see secular Jew).
- William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice (Act III, scene I)
- Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs
- dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
- the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
- to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
- warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
- as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
- If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,
- do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?
- William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice (Act III, scene I)
Usage notes
- The Jewish community overall has a common religion, culture, identity, and ethnicity, but individual Jews do not necessarily share all of these; therefore, a person might be a Jew by one standpoint but not by another.
- Additionally, there are some religious groups that identify themselves as part of Judaism, but that other Jewish groups might not; hence, use of the term Jew often depends on the speaker's opinions.
- The noun Jew is not offensive, and the overwhelming majority of English-speaking Jews use the noun Jew to identify themselves.
- That said, it has become offensive for historical reasons to use the word Jew attributively, in modifying another noun (as in "Jew lawyer"); the adjective Jewish is preferred for this purpose.
- Additionally, the derived verbs jew and jew down are considered offensive, as they reflect stereotypes considered offensive.
Synonyms
- Jewess (female — archaic)
- Hebrew (dated)
- Israelite (dated)
- kike (derogatory)
- Moses (dated, derogatory)
- yid (derogatory)
Derived terms
Verb
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Infinitive to Jew |
Third person singular Jews |
Simple past Jewed |
Past participle Jewed |
Present participle Jewing |
to Jew (third-person singular simple present Jews, present participle Jewing, simple past and past participle Jewed)
- (offensive) Alternative spelling of jew.
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Ha'aretz
Saban, an Egyptian-born Jew , was first reported to be negotiating the purchase of half the Doha-based network in 2004, after visiting the emirate with ...
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