Name of a tribe of Canaanites, dispossessed of Jerusalem by David. In 17th c., a nickname for Roman Catholics, esp. Jesuits.
1535. Coverdale, Judg. i. 21. Ye Iebusites [Wyclif Iebuse, Iebusei] dwelt amonge the children of Ben Iamin at Ierusalem vnto this daye.
1583. Fulke, Defence (1843), 568. Your Jebusites, that must be called ‘fathers.’
1604. Supplic. Masse-Priests, C viij. Henry Sammier a Iebusite disguised in the habit of a souldier.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 213. And proves the King himself a Jebusite.
Hence Jebusite v., Jebusitic, -itical, -itish a.
1608. A. Willet, Hexapla Exod., 62. The desperate plot … Iebusited by that wicked seede and seminarie of Satan.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 18. Ignatius and his Colony of Iesuites … that Iebusiticall societie.
16[?]. Sempill, Pick Tooth for Pope, in Harp Renfrewshire, Ser. II. (1873), 8. Your Jebusitish Jesuits.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 663. And suited to the temper of the times, Then groaning under Jebusitick crimes.
1898. E. S. Wallace, Jerusalem the Holy, i. 20. The fact that Urusalim is the common appellation leads to the conclusion that the Jebusitic occupation was of later date.
