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Glite Dictionary
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 A Semitic person 🌍 Related to Semitic peoples
Semite

Semite

2 8.1
A person from groups of people in the Middle East or North Africa who speaks a related language
  • noun
  • /ˈsɛm.aɪt/
translation icon : semita
  • Semites are not a race; whatever that is, it is a language group containing Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic (others?).
  • an anti-Semite
  • a philo-Semite

Examples

  • Let's put the record of terminology straight: Jews (as I am) and Arabs are the same race: Semites.

    Blog text (30)

  • - Do you know of any other statues of a Semite of this kind in Egypt?

    Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus (2015)

  • I know the term Semite today isn't referring to a separate race, only to languages.

    Blog text (30)

  • These Semites begin free, powerful and prosperous, but then succumb to impoverishment and malnutrition.

    Patterns of Evidence: The Exodus (2015)

  • Many scholars study the history and culture of the ancient Semites, who spoke a variety of Semitic languages.

  • The museum has an exhibit dedicated to artifacts from the Semite civilizations of the Middle East.

  • He is proud to identify as a Semite and takes an interest in the linguistic heritage of his ancestors.

Surface Forms

Semite singular
Semites plural

Etymology

Semite comes from the Hebrew name Shem in the Bible and once meant 'descendant of Shem'. So a Semite is a person from the groups who share those languages and cultures, for example Arabs and Jews.