Hamitic

American  

[ha-mit-ik, huh-] / hæˈmɪt ɪk, hə- /

noun

1. (especially formerly) the non-Semitic branches of the Afroasiatic language family.

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adjective

1. of or relating to the Hamites or Hamitic.

Hamitic British  

/ hæˈmɪtɪk, hə- /

noun

1. a group of N African languages related to Semitic. They are now classified in four separate subfamilies of the Afro-Asiatic family: Egyptian, Berber, Cushitic, and Chadic

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adjective

1. denoting, relating to, or belonging to this group of languages

2. denoting, belonging to, or characteristic of the Hamites

Other Word Forms

• non-Hamitic
  adjective

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Etymology

Origin of Hamitic

First recorded in 1880–85; Hamite + -ic

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

Hamitic

The majority of the people are of the Eastern Hamitic family mixed with cultured Himyaritic Semites from South Arabia.

From Time Magazine Archive

A proud people, tall, lithe' and fine-featured, the Somalis are Hamitic in origin, descended in part from 7th century Arabs who crossed into Africa from Yemen.

From Time Magazine Archive

As marauders, pirates, and conquerors, they were masterful, but they came in conflict with the ideas developed among the Semitic people of Asia and the Hamitic of Egypt.

From History of Human Society by Frank W. (Frank Wilson) Blackmar

Footnote 41: One of the Hamitic languages of eastern Africa.

From Language An Introduction to the Study of Speech by Edward Sapir

Japhetic, ja-fet′ik, adj. a term formerly applied in ethnology to European peoples, the supposed descendants of Japhet, as opposed to Hamitic and Semitic.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

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