Freq #430391
Meanings
- 1
Thesaurus
Borrowed in the late nineteenth century from German Antisemit, formed from anti- ('against') and Semit ('Semite'). Despite that formation, antisemite has always denoted hostility toward Jews, not toward all speakers of Semitic languages. The unhyphenated, lowercase spelling avoids implying that a doctrine called 'Semitism' exists.