Etymology

Edom

E·dom
E1D2O1M3

Today it means: The name given to Esau in the Hebrew Bible. Full definition →

Late Latin Edōm ← Koine Greek Ἐδώμ ← Biblical Hebrew אֱדוֹם
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Biblical Hebrew · derived fromאֱדוֹם
  2. Koine Greek · derived fromἘδώμ
  3. Late Latin · borrowed fromEdōm
  4. English todayEdom

From Late Latin Edōm from Koine Greek Ἐδώμ (Edṓm) from Biblical Hebrew אֱדוֹם (ʾĔḏōm). The medieval Jewish use of Edom to refer to Christians referred to their view of Christianity as a heresy that originated from Judaism, comparing Christians to Esau as a relative who was hostile to Jacob (who represented the Jewish people). It originated from Jewish writings that compared the Roman authorities to Edom for their persecution of Jewish people, which was later applied to Christianity when the latter became the state religion of the Roman Empire.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.