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
Old French ( 1st century). There, the Greek word "paropsid-es" (written in Latin) appears as "paraxsid-i". The consonant clusters /ps/ and /pt/ shifted to /xs/ and /xt/, e.g. Latin "capsa" > "*kaxsa" > "caisse" ( Italian "cassa") or "captīvus" > "*kaxtivus" > OF "chaitif" (mod. "chétif"; cf. Irish "cacht" 'servant'; ≠ Italian "cattiv-ità", Portuguese "cativo", Spanish "cautivo"). This phonetic evolution is parallel to the shift of the Latin cluster /kt/ in Old French (Latin "factum" > "fait", ≠ Italian "fatto", Portuguese "feito", Spanish "hecho"; or "lactem"* > "lait", ≠ Italian "latte", Portuguese "leite", Spanish "leche"). The Celtic Gaulish language is thought to