Canaanite

From Canaan +‎ -ite.

• IPA^(key): /ˈkeɪnənaɪt/

Canaanite

1. An ancient Semitic people who occupied Canaan before its conquest by Israelites.
2. A subfamily of the Semitic languages, which were spoken by the ancient peoples of the Canaan region, including Canaanites, Israelites, Phoenicians, and Philistines.

Canaanite (plural Canaanites)

1. A member of the ancient Semitic people who occupied Canaan before its conquest by Israelites.
   • 2022 November 9, Ian Sample, “Oldest known sentence written in first alphabet discovered – on a head-lice comb”, in The Guardian‎:

     It’s a simple sentence that captures the hopes and fears of modern-day parents as much as the bronze age Canaanite who owned the doubled-edged ivory comb on which the words appear.

2. (by extension) A zealot or fanatic.
3. A member of the Canaanism movement.

Canaanite (comparative more Canaanite, superlative most Canaanite)

1. Of or pertaining to the people or language of Canaan.
   • 2022 November 9, Ian Sample, “Oldest known sentence written in first alphabet discovered – on a head-lice comb”, in The Guardian‎:

     Unearthed in Lachish, a Canaanite city state in the second millennium BCE and the second most important city in the kingdom of Judah, the comb suggests that humans have endured lice for thousands of years and that even the wealthiest were not spared the grim infestations.

2. Of or pertaining to this sect or its followers; Canaanitic.
3. (by extension) zealous or fanatical.

• John A. Simpson and Edmund S. C. Weiner, editors (1989), “Canaanite”, in The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, Oxford: Clarendon Press, →ISBN.