Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
Hebraist

Hebraist

1 9.9
A person who studies the Hebrew language and its literature
  • noun
  • /ˈhiːbreɪɪst/
  • Specialized
: hebraísta
  • As a renowned Hebraist, she published several important studies on Hebrew literature.

Examples

  • Many esteemed Hebraists contribute to our understanding of ancient texts.

  • William Rainey Harper, the Hebraist who served as its founding president, set out to build a great center of research on the German model.

    Academic text (2001)

  • Scaliger did similar things, working his way as many Christian Hebraists did, through the Hebrew text of the Gospel of Matthew.

  • I am trying to look closer into the history of the Hebraist (the Semites, as they were called in the 19th century) and later Arabist.

    Blog text (9)

  • The seventeenth century knew an unprecedented upsurge of first-rate Christian Hebraists and the translation of many Jewish classics into Latin.

    Academic text (1990)

  • The university hosts a lecture series featuring prominent Hebraists from around the world.

Surface Forms

Hebraist singular
Hebraists plural

Morphology

Hebraist = Hebrew (transparent) = Hebra + ist

The suffix '-ist' is commonly used to denote a specialist or expert, making the meaning clear.

Etymology

Hebraist comes from Hebrew and the ending -ist, which means 'a person who studies or works in something', as in artist or pianist. So a Hebraist is an expert who studies the Hebrew language or its writings.