Semitism

Noun

Semitism (countable and uncountable, plural Semitisms)

1. (countable, rhetoric) A word or phrase (construction or idiom) typical of or influenced by a Semitic language such as Arabic, Aramaic or Hebrew.
   • The main reason for this neglect is the fact that it is largely a translated text, a fact which is alleged to account for its strange idiom tinged with Semitic traits, largely in syntax and lexicography. For sure, one can easily identify countless Semitisms.2004, Takamitsu Muraoka, “Septuagint Lexicography”, in Biblical Greek Language and Lexicography, edited by Bernard A. Taylor, John A. L. Lee, Peter R. Burton, and Richard E. Whitaker, →ISBN, page 85
   • In other words, 93% of the Semitisms in Luke — more than nine out of 10 Semitisms in the chart — are unique to Luke. Of all Luke's Semitisms, only 15 (= 2%) appear in common with both Matthew and Mark; […]2009, James R. Edwards, The Hebrew Gospel and the Development of the Synoptic Tradition, →ISBN, page 142
2. (rare, uncountable) Semitic character; Semiticness.
   • If gay corporation executives can learn to talk to drag queens and separatist dykes across the common denominator of being queer, then perhaps Arabs and Jews can learn to communicate across their common Semitism.1979 April 21, Dennis Melba'son, “NGTF, the March and the Hinterlands”, in Gay Community News, page 5
   • In a Europe which was obsessed by race, some saw the division as one between Semites and Aryans, the Sunnis representing the Semitism of Arabian Islam, the Shi'a representing the upsurge of Aryan Iran.1987, Martin Kramer, Shi'ism, resistance and revolution, page 22
3. (rare, strict-sense, uncountable) Judaism; Jewishness (especially when seen as the thing to which anti-Semitism is opposed).
   • […] a racist coloration through the inclusion of another remark of Albert Gessmann: when the more radical nationalists fell silent a merger of all Aryans against the common danger of Semitism will be the next consequence.1990, Richard S. Geehr, Karl Lueger: Mayor of Fin de Siècle Vienna, →ISBN, page 308
   • Only a strong countermovement could prevent the triumph of Semitism all over the world. The urgent task for Germans was to overcome the Semitism within themselves, and racial hygiene was the means to this end.2005, Roderick Stackelberg, “Hentschel, Willibald (1858–1947)”, in Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice, →ISBN