callippo Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 never too early when it comes to the silly season on the jolly old Sheffield Forum. These antisemitic topics come up every day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rupert_Baehr Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 With respect, Calippo, you are stirring the pot too. IMO, it's past time that people got the language right. Judaism - a religion. Christianity - a religion. Islam - a religion. Israel - a nation. Zionists - an extreme group of Israelis/supporters of an idealistic Israeli state. Semites - an ethnic group including the Jewish people (the people of the 12 tribes) and their Arab neighbours. There are Jews (those who practise Judaism) Christians (some of whom are semites) and Arabs (who are also semites [not all of them] and most of whom follow Islam) who are Israeli citizens. They are Israelis; some are Zionists. Being anti-Zionist (or even anti-Israeli) is not the same as being anti-Jewish I have a very good friend who was born and brought up in Dyfed. He speaks pretty good English (and reasonable Welsh, too.) His name is Griffiths. He looks like a Welshman (not surprising, his parents are Welsh and that is his nationality) and he is a Jew. If somebody was to insult him because of his religious beliefs, would that be anti-Semitic (he's not a Semite), anti-Israeli (He's British) or anti-Gallic? The misuse of the term 'anti-Semitic' along with the misuse of the words 'Zionist' and 'Israeli' causes more problems than enough. The terms are not interchangeable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 ok, here's one for you. Check out the Chambers online dictionary here : http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main key in the word SEMITE. this is what comes up : Sorry, no entries for semite were found. then, key in ANTISEMITE (one word, no hyphen), and see what happens : anti-semite noun someone who is hostile to or prejudiced against Jews. antisemitic adj. antisemitism noun. ETYMOLOGY: 19c. despite the dictionary not recognising SEMITE as a word, it spells ANTISEMITE with a hyphen. I understand you live in Germany, and perhaps you have a working knowledge of German. The English ANTISEMITE derives from the German ANTISEMITISCH, a word coined by a Jew-hater by the name of Wilhelm Marr. It was an invented word, to make the idea of hating Jews sound more 'scientific' - an early example of political correctness. The word has never meant anything other than hating Jews, and has nothing whatever to do with the notion of 'Semites', which is a word nobody ever thought to use to refer to people before the term 'antisemite' was coined. SEMITIC was a word. SEMITIC refers to languages like Hebrew, Aramaic, or Arabic. Not people. the confusion arises from a baffling decision by an English dictionary many years ago to spell this particular word, borrowed from the German language, with a hyphen - despite there not being any other word in the English language spelt in this way, with a hyphen. In the original Ge rman, 'antisemitisch' is never spelt with a hyphen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Treatment Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 I don't know why the Arab states keep trying to take on Israel - they always get hammered, but one likes a trier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 when there are millions of Israelis that can pass for Arabs and who have over the years been Israel's most successful spies. They're not that different are they? Makes you wonder why they are killing each other, almost. Virtually half of Mossad were serving officers in the Egyptian army during the late 70s. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 ok, here's one for you. Check out the Chambers online dictionary here : http://www.chambersharrap.co.uk/chambers/features/chref/chref.py/main key in the word SEMITE. this is what comes up : Sorry, no entries for semite were found. Try these instead - chambers is cack, http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Semite http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Semite http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=Semite http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/534157/Semite http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/semite http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/semite http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13706a.htm Just a random selection from http://www.google.co.uk/search?sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&=&q=define%3Asemite&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1#q=define:semite&hl=en&prmd=ivns&ei=cuj9Ta-eK8mk8QPaqL2LBA&start=10&sa=N&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=354d4253d6778b69&biw=1280&bih=811 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 nobody referred to Semite before the German word antisemitisch entered the English language as antisemite, and then, oddly - morphed into anti-semite. Nobody spells antisemite with a hyphen in its original German. Semite had no currency as a word until antisemitism came along. But the word semitic was however used by linguists to refer to semitic languages, but not the people that spoke them. And this is the source from which Wilhelm Marr coined the unhyphenated German word. in any case referring to Semites as a people is absurd. Half of Ethiopians speak Semitic languages and half don't. It's nonsensical to refer to half as them as Semites, and half as non-Semites, rather than as Semitic or non-Semitic language speakers. Somebody doesn't become a Semite when they learn to speak Arabic or Hebrew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Phanerothyme Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 But your contention that "the dictionary" doesn't recognise "semite" as a word is palpably wrong except in one case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ostridge Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 He probably had a British passport too ----------- http://uk.news.yahoo.com/us-citizen-accused-being-israeli-spy-131017640.html Hardly a surprise from certain Israeli terrorists. just looking like a stereo typical jew is enough to get you killed in countries like egypt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
callippo Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 But your contention that "the dictionary" doesn't recognise "semite" as a word is palpably wrong except in one case. what contention? I never said that 'the dictionary' doesn't recognise semite, I just pointed out one that doesn't. You just made that up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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