Etymology

Hittite

Hit·tite
H4I1T1T1I1T1E1

Today it means: A person of the Hittite Kingdom, a Bronze Age kingdom of Anatolia. Full definition →

Biblical Hebrew חִתִּי ← Hittite 𒄩𒋾
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The story

  1. Hittite · derived from𒄩𒋾
  2. Biblical Hebrew · derived fromחִתִּי
  3. English todayHittite

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.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.