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 analogical developments: analogical borrowing of unstressed vowel /a/, analogical "-e" in the first singular (from verbs like "j'entre", with a regular "-e" ) and wholesale replacement of the subjunctive with forms modelled on "-ir"/"-oir"/"-re" verbs. All serve to eliminate the various alternations in the Old French verb paradigm. Even modern "irregular" verbs are not immune from analogy: For example, Old French "je vif", "tu vis", "il vit" ("vivre" "to live") has yielded to modern "je vis", "tu vis", "il vit", eliminating the unpredictable "-f" in the first-person singular. The simple past also shows extensive analogical reformation and simplification in Modern