Hamitic

American  

[ha-mit-ik, huh-] / hæˈmɪt ɪk, hə- /

noun

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

---

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

---

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

Etymology

Origin of Hamitic

First recorded in 1880–85; Hamite + -ic

Example Sentences

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

But the Hamitic element is thought by experts to be as much Kushite, or even Koptic, as Libyan.

From Man, Past and Present by Haddon, Alfred Court

Hence the relations of Semitic and Hamitic still require many investigations in detail, for which the works of Reinisch and Basset have merely built up a basis.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 8 "Haller, Albrecht" to "Harmonium" by Various

This language, or rather various dialects of it, were common to most Hamitic and Semitic tribes, among whom that from which the Hebrews sprang brought it to its greatest perfection.

From Chaldea From the Earliest Times to the Rise of Assyria by Ragozin, Zénaïde A. (Zénaïde Alexeïevna)