Contents
English
Wikipedia has an article on: JewEtymology
From Old French juiu, gyu < Latin Iūdaeus < Ancient Greek Ἰουδαῖος (Ioudaios) < Hebrew יהודי (Yehudi)
Pronunciation
Noun
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
to Jew (third-person singular simple present Jews, present participle Jewing, simple past and past participle Jewed)
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