Hittite
/ˈhɪ.taɪt/ noun, proper noun, adjective
Forms Hittites Hitt.
- noun A person of the Hittite Kingdom, a Bronze Age kingdom of Anatolia.
- proper noun An ancient Indo-European language of the Anatolian branch, attested from the 16th century BC until the 13th century BC.
- adjective Of or relating to the Hittite people.
- adjective Of or relating to the Hittite language.
- adjective Of or relating to the Hittite Kingdom, located in central Anatolia (modern Turkey), that flourished from about 1800 to 1400 B.C.E.
Etymology
From Biblical Hebrew חִתִּי (ḥittî), from Hittite 𒄩𒋾 (ḫati), perhaps ultimately an exonym related to Hatti. In reference to the Indo-European-speaking people of Asia Minor (as opposed to the Biblical Hittites), this term was first used in the early 20th century in confusion with the neighboring Hattites (Hattic) whose language was recorded in discovered texts as [script needed] (ḫattili). It is now known that the Hittites called themselves 𒉈𒋗𒈨𒉌𒌍 (ne-šu-me-né-eš /nešumeneš/, “people from the city of Nesha”), hence the much less used alternative name Nesite or Neshite.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A member of an ancient people (or perhaps group of peoples) whose settlements extended from Armenia westward into Asia Minor and southward into Palestine. They are known to have been met along the Orontes as early as 1500 b. c., and were often at war with the Egyptians and Assyrians. Especially in the north they developed a considerable civilization, of which numerous monuments and inscriptions are extant. Authorities are not agreed as to their race.
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “Hittite”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details