Judaism

Etymology

It is inherited from Middle English Iudaisme,^[2][1][3] borrowed from Late Latin Iudaismus (“the Jewish religion, Jewish rites”),^[4][1][5][6] which the American Heritage Dictionary, Etymonline and Barnhart also derive through Old French Judaisme.^[2][7][3] The revised OED only compares the French word, which it dates to about 1150 and finds unrecorded from the mid 13th to the mid 16th century.^[4] The Latin noun, in use from the early 3rd century in Tertullian,^[4] is from Ancient Greek Ἰουδαϊσμός (Ioudaïsmós, “Jewish religion”),^[4][1][5][3] found in the Septuagint (2 Maccabees 2:21) and the New Testament (Galatians 1:13).^[4] It is formed from Ἰουδαῖος (Ioudaîos, “Jew”) and -ισμός (-ismós).^[4][1][5] The Greek name goes back, according to Wiktionary, to Biblical Hebrew יְהוּדָה (Yəhūḏā, “Judah”).^[1] Jew has the same source.^[7][2]

Earliest recorded meaning

The religion of the Jewish people: before 1425 in the Northern Pauline Epistles, at Galatians 1:13, a text the OED dates to before 1400.^[4] Barnhart likewise dates the word before 1400,^[3] Etymonline about 1400^[7] and Merriam-Webster Unabridged to the 14th century;^[5] Dictionary.com's 1485–95 is much later.^[8] An earlier word for the Jewish faith was Middle English juhede, literally "Jew-hood", from the early 14th century.^[7][9]

Semantic evolution

In the British Latin of the 12th and 13th centuries the word had other senses as well as the religious one: the Jewish quarter of a town, the Jewish community, the Exchequer of the Jews, and a debt owed to a Jew.^[4] Etymonline notes an Anglo-Latin use from the mid 13th century for a special tax on the Jews of England.^[7] English took up that fiscal sense as a historical term in 1686, for the revenue the Crown drew from the Jewish community and the treasury that received it.^[4] A further sense, Christians' adoption or retention of Jewish practices, is recorded from 1578, in a translation of Rivius, and is now usually a count noun for such a practice.^[4][6] The OED also records a form Jewdaism, altered after Jew.^[4] Modern dictionaries widen the main sense from the religion to the culture and way of life of the Jewish people,^[4][10][2] and name its branches, such as Conservative Judaism and Liberal Judaism.^[6][5]

Timeline

• before 1425 – the Jewish religion, spelled Iudaisme.^[4][2] Barnhart dates the word to before 1400.^[3]
• 1578 – adoption of Jewish practices by Christians.^[4]
• 1686 – in English history, the Crown's revenue from the Jewish community, and its treasury.^[4]

Meanings

Noun

1. The monotheistic religion of the Jewish people, based on the Hebrew Scriptures, the Talmud and rabbinic tradition.^{[2][5][10][4]}
2. The religious and cultural traditions and way of life of the Jewish people.^[10][2][4]
3. Conformity to Jewish rites and practices; the state of being a Jew.^[5][2]
4. The adoption of Jewish practices by Christians; a practice of this kind.^[4][6]
5. (history) In England, the revenue the Crown drew from the Jewish community, or the treasury that received it.^[4][6]

Word family

• anti-Judaism
• Judaist
• Judaistic

Related words

• Jew
• Jewish
• Judaic
• Judaica
• Judaize
• Jewry
• Judezmo

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
3. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
5. ^ a b c d e f g Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
6. ^ a b c d e Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
7. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
8. ^ Dictionary.com Unabridged (2016), based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, New York: Random House
9. ^ Kurath, Hans; Kuhn, Sherman M.; Lewis, Robert E., eds. (1952–2001), Middle English Dictionary, Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press; online edition ed. Frances McSparran et al. (2000–2018)
10. ^ a b c Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins