Gibeonite

Part of speech: noun, adjective

Definitions

1. A person belonging to the ancient Canaanite population of Gibeon, a town near Jerusalem mentioned in the Hebrew Bible
2. Someone descended from or identified with the people who lived in the biblical city of Gibeon in ancient Palestine
3. An inhabitant of Gibeon, the ancient town whose people made a treaty with the Israelites as described in the Old Testament

Etymology: Gibeonite is one of the few English words whose history runs back through a biblical town. Gibeon was an ancient Canaanite city, and its inhabitants appear in the Book of Joshua, where they tricked the Israelites into a peace treaty by pretending to come from a distant land. The people of Gibeon were then bound to serve as woodcutters and water-carriers, and the story gave the town's name a lasting place in religious tradition. The word is formed simply from the place name Gibeon and the suffix "-ite," which English uses to mark a person belonging to a place or group, as in Israelite or Canaanite. Its meaning is therefore plainly literal: a person from Gibeon, with no shift in sense over time.