The story
From Ham + -ite. Coined in the first half of the 19th century along with Semite and Japhetite and the adjectives Hamitic, Semitic, Japhetitic.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
hamite
Today it means: A descendant of Ham, son of Noah, a member of the nations or peoples supposedly descended from Ham, i.e. the North African and the Horn African peoples. Full definition →