Semitic

How to spell semitic

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce semitic

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does semitic mean?

1. adjectiveRelating to the family of languages that includes Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic, or to the peoples who speak them.

Semitic in a sentence

• The professor specialised in semitic languages such as Hebrew and Arabic.

• Ancient semitic scripts were written from right to left.

Where does semitic come from?

Language of origin: Hebrew

This word traces back to Shem, the eldest son of Noah in the Hebrew Bible, whose name in Hebrew literally meant 'name' or 'renown'. The Hebrew Shem passed into Greek as Sem and into Latin as Sem, and from there scholars formed the Latinate adjective Semiticus to mean 'descended from Shem'. The modern term was effectively coined in the late eighteenth century by German historians and linguists (notably August Ludwig von Schlozer around 1781) who needed a label for the related family of languages including Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic. English adopted it soon after, around the early nineteenth century, first as a linguistic classification and later in broader ethnic and cultural senses. The single 'm' and the soft 'c' that sounds like 'k' are the spots a writer can slip on, since the spelling preserves the biblical root rather than following ordinary English patterns.

How the word is built

• Semit- (from Shem, son of Noah)
• -ic (adjective suffix meaning 'relating to')