Jew (word) Jew (word) The English term Jew originates in the Biblical Hebrew word "Yehudi", meaning "from the Kingdom of Judah", or "Jew". It passed into Greek as "Ioudaios" and Latin as "Iudaeus", which evolved into the Old French "giu" after the letter "d" was dropped. A variety of related forms are found in early English from about the year 1000, including "Iudea", "Gyu", "Giu", "Iuu", "Iuw", and "Iew", which eventually developed into the modern word. According to the Book of Genesis, Judah (, "Yehudah") was the name of the fourth son of the patriarch Jacob. During the Exodus, the name was
History of French all consonants could potentially appear word-finally except for and (which were always followed by at least a schwa, stemming from either a final or a prop vowel). In Old French, however, all underlying voiced stops and fricatives were pronounced voiceless when word-final. This was clearly reflected in Old French spelling, e.g. the adjectives "froit" "cold" (feminine "froide"), "vif" "lively" (feminine "vive"), "larc" "large" (feminine "large"), and similarly in verbs, e.g. "je doif" "I must" vs. "ils doivent" "they must", "je lef" "I may wash" vs. "ils levent" "they (may) wash". Most of these alternations have since disappeared (due partly to