Canaanite

American  

[key-nuh-nahyt] / ˈkeɪ nəˌnaɪt /

noun

1. a member of a Semitic people that inhabited parts of ancient Palestine and were conquered by the Israelites and largely absorbed by them.

2. a group of Semitic languages, including Hebrew and Phoenician, spoken chiefly in ancient Palestine and Syria.

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adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of Canaan, the Canaanites, or the Canaanite group of languages.

Canaanite British  

/ ˈkeɪnəˌnaɪt /

noun

1. a member of an ancient Semitic people who occupied the land of Canaan before the Israelite conquest

2. the extinct language of this people, belonging to the Canaanitic branch of the Semitic subfamily of the Afro-Asiatic family

3. (in later books of the Old Testament) a merchant or trader (Job 40:30; Proverbs 31:24)

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Other Word Forms

• Canaanitic adjective
• Canaanitish adjective
• pre-Canaanite noun
• pre-Canaanitic adjective

Etymology

Origin of Canaanite

1350–1400; Middle English ≪ Greek Kananī́tēs; Canaan, -ite ¹

Example Sentences

This textual evidence likely preserves small elements of the earlier Canaanite polytheistic religious traditions.

From Textbooks • Apr. 19, 2023

The Canaanite alphabet is the world’s first alphabet, and it led to our modern alphabets.

From NewsForKids.net • Nov. 15, 2022

He said experts dated the script to 1700 B.C. by comparing it to the archaic Canaanite alphabet previously found in Egypt’s Sinai desert, dating back to between 1900 B.C. and 1700 B.C.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 9, 2022

Because examples of Canaanite writing around the same time period are rare and fragmentary, and because many of the engravings on the comb were faint, the work was painstaking.

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2022

The scarabs, oil lamp, mortars, and seal were all Canaanite.

From "Shipwrecked!" by Martin W. Sandler