Judeans

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Members of an ancient Semitic people who inhabited the historical region of Judea; descendants of the Israelite tribes linked to the Kingdom of Judah; individuals associated with the cultural, religious, and historical traditions of this group
2. People belonging to the ethnic group originating from the territory known as Judea in ancient times; related to the Jewish population who trace their heritage to this area; participants in the early history of Judaism and its communities
3. Inhabitants of the land of Judah during biblical and historical periods; persons identified with the Judaean kingdoms and their legacy; those connected with the Jewish identity rooted in that region and era

Etymology: "Judeans" is the plural of "Judean," so the history belongs to the singular. The root is the Hebrew name Judah, the son of Jacob and the ancestor of one of the twelve tribes of Israel, which gave its name to the southern kingdom and the region around it. Ancient Greek turned that name into "Ioudaios," meaning a person from Judah, and Latin borrowed the form "iudaeus" from it. Its English descendant was formed in a way that is easy to misread. English took the Latin base and added the suffix "-an," which marks someone belonging to a place, as in "Lutheran" or "Victorian." The spelling "Judean" therefore looks like "Judah" plus "-ean," but the actual route runs through Greek and Latin rather than directly from the Hebrew name.

Synonyms: jews, israelites