Forms: Sing. 3 Gyu, 4 Giu, Gyw, Iu, Iuu, Iuw(e, Ieu, Ieuu, Ieuȝ, 4–5 Iwe, 4 (6 Sc.) Iow, 4–7 Iewe, 5 Ieue, 5–6 Iue, (Ive), 4–7 Iew, 7– Jew. Plur. 2 Giwis, 3 Giws, Gius, Gyu(e)s, 3–4 Gywes, Giwes, Geus, 4 Iuu(e)s, Iuwis, Iow(e)s, Ioues, Iewis, -ys, -us, 4–5 Iuwes, 4–6 Iues, 4–7 Iewes, 5 Iuys, 6 Sc. Iowis, Iouis, 4–7 Iews, 7– Jews; β. 4 Iuen. [ME. a. OF. giu, gyu, giue, earlier juieu, juiu, jueu:—L. iūdæum (nom. -us) Jew (cf. F. dieu, ebreu:—L. deum, hebræum); in later F. juif, fem. juive. L. iūdæus was a. Gr. ἰουδαῖ-ος, f. Aramaic y’hūdāi, corresp. to Heb. y’hūdī Jew, f. y’hūdāh Judah, name of a Hebrew patriarch and the tribe descended from him. (The OE. equivalent was Iudeas Jews, Early ME. Iudeow, Iudew: see JUDEW.)]
1. A person of Hebrew race; an Israelite.
Orig. a Hebrew of the kingdom of Judah, as opposed to those of the ten tribes of Israel; later, any Israelite who adhered to the worship of Jehovah as conducted at Jerusalem. Applied comparatively rarely to the ancient nation before the exile (cf. HEBREW A. 1), but the commonest name for contemporary or modern representatives of the race; almost always connoting their religion and other characteristics which distinguish them from the people among whom they live, and thus often opposed to Christian, and (esp. in early use) expressing a more or less opprobrious sense.
c. 1275. Passion our Lord, 351, in O. E. Misc., 47. Pilates hym onswerede, am ich Gyv þenne?
a. 1300. Cursor M., 3944 (Cott.). O sinnu etes neuer Iuu [v.rr. ieuu, iew]. Ibid., 11072 (Cott.). It halus bath Iu and sarzine.
c. 1310. in Wright, Lyric P. (Percy Soc.), 100. Ich holde me vilore then a Gyw [rhymes bowe, trowe, now].
c. 1340. Cursor M., 4532 (Trin.). Þerynne a iewes childe we fonde. Ibid., 18579 (Trin.). And namely leue herof no iwe For al þus dud þei wiþ ihesu.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 385. Charles Grossus was i-poysoned of a Iewe [v.r. Iuw].
a. 1400. Pistill of Susan, 2. Þat was a Ieuȝ ientil, and Ioachin he hiht.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 266/2. Ive, judeus.
1530. Palsgr., 235/1. Jue a man of jurye, jvif.
1572. Satir. Poems Reform., xxxi. 173. Mair nor in Jurie dois the Jow.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., III. i. 61. What is the reason? I am a Iewe; Hath not a Iew eyes?
1615. G. Sandys, Trav., 52. His mother a Iew both by birth and religion.
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, II. i. She shall have a skin like a mummy, and the beard of a Jew.
1820. Byron, Blues, I. 77. You forget Lady Lilac’s as rich as a Jew.
plural. c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 9. Alswa hefden þe giwis heore sinagoge.
c. 1250. Old Kent. Serm., in O. E. Misc., 26. Hi … askede wer was se king of gyus þet was i-bore. Ibid. King of geus.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 142. O þe Iuus [v.rr. iewes] and moyses. Ibid., 19129 (Gött.). Þar badd þai iuen suld þaim ȝeme.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter xxvii. 5. Þe iowes sloghe crist.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VIII. 53. Þat he schulde doo þe Iewes [v.r. Iuwes] out of Engelond.
1482. Caxton, Trevisa’s Higden (Rolls), IV. 369. Þe Iuwes accused Pilatus to Tiberius.
1533. Gau, Richt Vay, 30. Ve prech Iesu Christ crucifeit, sclander to the Iowis and folie to the gentils.
1548–9. (Mar.) Bk. Comm. Prayer (Coll. Good Friday), Haue mercy upon all Iewes, Turkes, Infidels, and heretikes.
1611. Bible, 2 Kings xvi. 6. At that time Rezin king of Syria, recouered Elath to Syria, & draue the Iewes from Elath.
1619. Sanderson, Twelve Serm. (1632), 2. In Rome there lived in the Apostles times many Iewes.
1776. Gibbon, Decl. & F., xv. The same … abhorrence for idolatry which had distinguished the Jews from the other nations of the ancient world.
gen. plur. a. 1225. Ancr. R., 394. Uorto acwiten ut his leofmon of Giwene honden.
a. 1225. Juliana, 62. Ant þoledest pinen ant passiun þurh giwes read on rode.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 4532 (Cott.). Þar in a Iuen child [Trin. iewes childe] we fand. Ibid. (c. 1300), 19289 (Edin.). Þe iuwin folc felune. Ibid., 21696 (Edin.). Mang þe Iuwis lede.
c. 1350. Childh. Jesus, 616 (Mätz.). Giwene children feole … Him siweden.
c. 1449. Pecock, Repr., III. iii. 291. If Cristen preestis weren Iewen preestis.
1653. Greaves, Seraglio, 150. In the Kings Seraglio, the Sultana’s are permitted to employ divers Jewes-women about their ordinary occasions.
b. Jew’s eye: proverbial expression for something valued highly.
1592. G. Harvey, Pierce’s Super., 85. A souerain Rule, as deare as a Iewes eye.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., II. v. 43. There will come a Christian by, Will be worth a Iewes eye.
1833. Marryat, P. Simple, ii. Although the journey … would cost twice the value of a gold seal, yet, that in the end it might be worth a Jew’s eye.
1844. Willis, Lady Jane, I. 212. From dome to floor, Hung pictures … Each ‘worth a Jew’s eye.’
2. transf. As a name of opprobrium or reprobation; spec. applied to a grasping or extortionate money-lender or usurer, or a trader who drives hard bargains or deals craftily.
1606. Sir G. Goosecappe, V. i. in Bullen, O. Pl., III. 77. If the sunne of thy beauty doe not white me like a shippards holland, I am a Iewe to my Creator.
1700. Bp. Patrick, Comm. Deut. xxviii. 37. Better we cannot express the most cutthroat dealing, than thus, You use me like a Jew.
1830. Coleridge, Table-t., 16 May. Jacob is a regular Jew, and practises all sorts of tricks and wiles.
1844. D. King, Ruling Eldership, II. i. It is undesirable … that he pass in the commercial circle for what is there termed a Jew.
3. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. or as adj. That is a Jew, Jewish, as Jew boy, butcher, pedlar, physician, trooper; of or relating to Jews, as Jew bill, hatred, toll. b. objective, similative, etc., as Jew-drowning, -hater, Jew-dear, adj.; Jew-like adj. and adv., -looking adj.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. x. (1793), 375. Very high debates about the time of the famous *Jew-bill; which enables all Jews to prefer bills of naturalization in parliament, without receiving the sacrament.
1849. W. S. Mayo, Kaloolah, (1887), Pref. p. ix. Oil, garlic, salt fish, and *Jew brandy.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 213. Thus you see the *Iew-butcher had need be no botcher, but halfe a Physitian in Anatomizing.
1755. J. Shebbeare, Lydia (1769), I. 274. [He] must have had this *jew-craft among his reasons for endeavouring to naturalize the Jews.
1899. A. White, Modern Jew, 122. There are many instances of the drollery of *Jew-drowning in the annals of monkish historians.
1899. Westm. Gaz., 18 Sept., 2/2. The nature of the wounds roused amongst the *Jew-haters the old story of the blood sacrifice.
1898. Nat. Rev., Aug., 807. Outside Russia, *Jew hatred is a matter with which Governments have no direct concern.
1808. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XIII. 172. Through the means of a *jew-like commerce with the revolted slaves.
1771. Smollett, Humph. Cl., 20 April, Let. ii. I was cheapening a pair of spectacles with a *Jew-pedlar.
1731. Gentl. Mag., I. 403/1. Deaths…. Dr. Bass, a noted *Jew Physician in St. Mary Axe.
a. 1680. Butler, Rem. (1759), I. 84.
| And crucify his Saviour worse | |
| Than those *Jew-Troopers, that threw out, | |
| When they were raffling for his Coat. |
c. Special Combs.: Jew-bail, insufficient bail, ‘straw-bail’; Jew-baiting sb. [= Ger. Judenhetze], systematic harrying or persecution of Jews; so Jew-bait v. nonce-wd., Jew-baiter, Jew-baiting a.; Jew-bush, a euphorbiaceous plant of the genus Pedilanthus; Jew-cart (see quot.); Jew-lizard, a large Australian lizard, Amphibolurus barbatus.
1785. Grose, Dict. Vulg. T., *Jew Bail.
1797. Mrs. M. Robinson, Walsingham, IV. 283. He … did the deep ones with Jew-bail, till they were up to the trick.
1892. Sat. Rev., 18 June, 700/2. [He] is always going about Jew-baiting and to *Jew-bait with pen or sword.
1883. Pall Mall Gaz., 19 Nov., 3/3. [They] are now in full possession of the case of the German *jew-baiters against the Jews.
1883. Evening Post (N.Y.), 21 April. The *Jew-baiting in Germany; the bloody persecutions in Russia.
1898. A. White, in Nat. Review, Aug., 807. In the Empire of the Tsar it is otherwise. Jew-baiting is a matter of high State policy.
1830. Lindley, Nat. Syst. Bot., 105. The *Jew Bush, or Milk plant.
1840. Marryat, Poor Jack, xviii. Then we have what we call *Jew Carts, always ready to take [stolen] goods inland, where they will not be looked after.
1847. Leichhardt, Jrnl., iii. 89. A small Chlamydophorus (*Jew lizard of the Hunter [River]) was also seen.
a. 1884. J. Service, Thir Notandums (1890), 205. From beneath a log the green Jew-lizard, or the iguana peeps.
d. Genitival Combs.: Jews’ apple, a name for the Egg-plant or its fruit; Jews’ frankincense, a plant of the genus Styrax, or the resin obtained from it (storax or benzoin); Jews’ houses, name given to the remains of ancient tin-smelting furnaces in Cornwall; † Jew’s letter, a text inscribed in Hebrew upon a phylactery, regarded as the outward symbol or badge of a Jew; † Jews’ lime, a synonym of Jews’ slime (see below); Jews’ mallow, a name for Corchorus olitorius (N.O. Tiliaceæ), one of the plants from which the fiber called jute is obtained, used as a pot-herb in Egypt, Syria, and other countries; † Jews’ money, a popular name for ancient Roman coins found in some parts of England; Jews’ myrtle, a name for Butcher’s Broom, and for a variety of the common Myrtle; Jews’ pitch, † Jews’ slime, names for asphalt or bitumen (cf. Gen. xi. 3); Jews’ thorn = Christ’s thorn (see CHRIST 5); Jews’ tin, name for lumps of tin found in ancient smelting-furnaces (Jews’ houses) in Cornwall.
1884. Miller, Plant-n., Solanum esculentum, *Jew’s-Apple, Mad-Apple…. S. Melongena,… Egg-plant, Jew’s-Apple.
1760. J. Lee, Introd. Bot., App. 305. *Jew’s Frankincense, Styrax.
1851. Illustr. Catal. Gt. Exhib., 162. In the reign of King John, the mines [were] principally in the hands of the Jews … remains of furnaces, called *Jews’ houses, have been discovered, and small blocks of tin, known as Jews’ tin, have … been found in the mining localities.
1589. R. Harvey, Pl. Perc. (1860), 32. *Iewes letter scrible scrable ouer the Copurtenaunce of a mans countenaunce.
1598. Florio, Worlde of Wordes, To Rdr. A vj. A fouler blot then a Iewes letter … in the foreheads of Cælius and Curio.
1731–3. Miller, Gard. Dict., s.v. Corchorus, *Jews Mallow,… sown in great Plenty about Aleppo as a Pot-herb, the Jews boiling the Leaves of this Plant to eat with their Meat.
1887. Moloney, Forestry W. Afr., 289–90. ‘Jews’ Mallow’ or ‘Jute’ (Corchorus olitorius, L.)—Annual. This is one of the species that affords the well-known fibre of commerce called ‘Jute.’
1577. Harrison, England, II. xxiv. (1877), I. 360. Some peeces or other are dailie taken vp, which they call Borow pence, Dwarfs monie … *Iewes monie, and by other foolish names not woorthie to be remembred.
1856. N. & Q., Ser. II. I. 432/2. In some parts of Kent it [Ruscus aculeatus] is called *‘Jews’ Myrtle’; and it is the popular belief, that the crown of thorns … was composed of its branches.
1756. P. Browne, Jamaica, 40. Asphaltum, *Jew’s pitch.
1816. Tingry, Varnisher’s Guide (ed. 2), 1. Asphaltum … issues in a liquid form from the bottom of the lake Asphaltis in Judæa; and hence the name of Jew’s pitch.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 188. *Iewes lime drunk in water … prescribed for a remedy of this euill.
1639. Horn & Robotham, Gate Lang. Unl., x. § 104. Salt-peter, brimstone, Jew’s slime, patrol, bole-armoniak,… are called mineral juyces.
1597. Gerarde, Herbal, Index, *Iewes thorne, that is Christs thorne. [III. xxvi. 1153 This shrubbie thorne Paliurus was the thorne wherewith they crowned our Sauiour Christ.]
1851. *Jews’ tin [see Jews’ house].
