What does anti-semetic mean? I know what it's referring to,but what is the true definition?

Question

It's a word I hear all the time, and I know the gist of what is being said, but what is the real meaning?

Answer 1

A Semetic person is someone who is a descendent of Shem, one of the three sons of Noah in the Bible (or the Torah as the Jews call it). Shem was the son who stayed in the Middle East, while, according to the Bible, Japheth when into what is Europe today, and Ham into central Africa.

So while all the Middle Eastern groups (Arabs, Egypts, even into India) are semetic, the term is most often applied to the just the Jews. So to be anti-semetic is to be opposed to Jews.

Answer 2

Anti-semetic means you have a prejudice towards people of the jewish decent.

Answer 3

Hostility toward or prejudice against Jews or Judaism.

Discrimination against Jews.

Answer 4

Anti = against, opposed to
Semetic = referring to people of Jewish descent

Basically it's people that hate Jews because they are Jews.

Answer 5

actually, antisemitism refers to a hatred or prejudice against people of semitic descent, including but not limited to the hebrew tribes (the original jews) and people who follow the jewish faith. the hebrew tribes (jews) are the only remaining semites, the others having died out (or been wiped out) in the past.

Answer 6

an·ti-Sem·ite (nt-smt, nt-)
n.
One who discriminates against or who is hostile toward or prejudiced against Jews.

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anti-Se·mitic (-s-mtk) adj.

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Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.


anti-Semitic

adj 1: relating to or characterized by anti-Semitism; hating Jews 2: discriminatory especially on the basis of race or religion [syn: racist, antiblack, anti-Semitic, anti-Semite(a)]