Dictionary

Hebraism en · NOUN

Etymology

From Middle French hebraisme or Latin Hebraismus; equivalent to Hebra- + -ism.

Meanings

1. (countable, rhetoric, uncountable) A characteristic trait of the Hebrew language. By extension it is sometimes applied to the Jewish people or their faith, national ideology, or culture.
   • The Scripture Greek is observed to be full of Syriasms and Hebraisms. 1762, William Warburton, The Doctrine of Grace:
   • Who, in reading this magnificent Hebraism, in his conception, sees aught but the heroic son of Nun, with the outstretched arm, and the greater and lesser light obsequious? 1833, Elia [pseudonym; Charles Lamb], “Barrenness of the Imaginative Faculty in the Productions of Modern Art”, in The Last Essays of Elia. […], London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 177:
2. (countable, rhetoric, uncountable) Excessive use of expressions derived from Hebrew.

Forms

Hypernyms

Semitism

Synonyms

Hebraicism