Plaut reported that scholars generally agree that the term “Hebrew” (, "Ivri"), as in , came from the name of a group called "Habiru" or "Apiru", people who had lost their status in the community from which they came, and who were not necessarily related except by common fate. Plaut wrote that the "Habiru" were a class of people who lived in the Fertile Crescent during the 19th to 14th centuries B.C.E. who may originally have come from Arabia, became prominent in Mesopotamia, and later spread to Egypt. The "Habiru" followed distinct occupations, particularly mercenaries and administrators. Although at first they were nomads or seminomads, they later settled, but were usually considered foreigners and maintaining their group identity. The term "Habiru" referred not so much to an ethnic or linguistic group as to a social or political group. Plaut reported that the words "Habiru" and “Hebrew” (, "Ivri") appear to share a common linguistic root. Plaut concluded that Israelites in Egypt likely occupied positions similar to, or because of familial ties were identified with, the "Habiru". When non-Israelites repeatedly applied the term to the Israelites, the Israelites themselves began to use the name "Habiru", which they pronounced "Ivri". Plaut considered it possible that for some time the term "Ivri" was used only when the Israelites spoke of themselves to outsiders and when outsiders referred to them. Thus calls Abram "Ivri" vis-a-vis an outsider, and Jonah says, "I am an "Ivri",” when asked his identity by non-Israelite sailors in , but otherwise Israelites referred to themselves by their tribes (for example, Judah or Ephraim) or by their common ancestor, Israel.