Aramaic

[ar-uh-mey-ik]

noun

Also Aramean, Aramaean. a northwest Semitic language that from c300 b.c.–a.d. 650 was a lingua franca for nearly all of SW Asia and was the everyday speech of Syria, Mesopotamia, and Palestine. Compare Biblical Aramaic.

adjective

pertaining to Aram, or to the languages spoken there.

noting or pertaining to the alphabetical, or perhaps syllabic, script used for the writing of Aramaic from about the ninth century b.c. and from which were derived the Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian, Pahlavi, Uighor, and many other scripts, probably including Brahmi.

Origin of Aramaic

1800–10; < Greek aramaî(os) of Aram + -ic, modeled on Hebraic

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for aramaic

Aramaic

noun

an ancient language of the Middle East, still spoken in parts of Syria and the Lebanon, belonging to the NW Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family. Originally the speech of Aram, in the 5th century bc it spread to become the lingua franca of the Persian empireSee also Biblical Aramaic

adjective

of, relating to, or using this language

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for aramaic

Aramaic

northern branch of Semitic language group, 1834, from biblical land of Aram, roughly corresponding to modern Syria; probably related to Hebrew and Aramaic rum "to be high," thus originally "highland."