Palestine

alternative archaic Palæstine

1. A country in Western Asia, in the Middle East; the State of Palestine; the homeland of the Palestinian people.

   Jews and Israel are not synonymous; nor is support for Palestine synonymous with anti-Semitism; nor is questioning the orthodoxy of the Republican party, which the majority of us do with relish, an insult to Jewry.

   2019 July 17, Talia Levin, “When Non-Jews Wield Anti-Semitism as Political Shield”, in GQ

   1. sometimes strictlyThe West Bank and Gaza Strip.

      Synonyms: State of Palestine, Falasteen

2. historical or politically chargedThe region in Western Asia in the Middle East between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.

   1 more example

   Most Zionists hoped for a state of their own, but early in the 20th century, writers like Hillel Solotaroff and Chaim Zhitlowsky, both Yiddish-speaking immigrant intellectuals in New York, imagined another alternative: a federation of self-governing anarchist communes in Palestine that would defend Jewish life without relying on state power.

   2019 July 15, Greg Afinogenov, “The Jewish Case for Open Borders”, in Jewish Currents, number Summer 2019

   Synonyms: Canaan, the Holy Land, Israel, the Land of Israel

3. historicalengineeringA British colonial entity administering approximately the lands mentioned in definition 1.
4. historicalrareengineeringThe British League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, of which this region was a part (the remainder being Transjordan, which covered approximately the lands of the modern Kingdom (originally Emirate) of Jordan).
5. historicalAny of four Ancient Roman and Byzantine provinces in the eastern Mediterranean: Syria Palaestina, Palaestina Prima, Palaestina Secunda and Palaestina Salutaris.

   Synonyms: Palaestina

6. obsoleteThe Biblical Land of Israel, roughly corresponding to the northern part of modern-day Israel proper, the West Bank, and northwest Jordan.

   Gad, in ancient geography, a district of Transjordan Palestine, situated between Gilead and the kingdom of Bashan on the north, and that of the Amorites to the south, having the Jordan to the west, and bounded by various nations on the east, so called from the tribe of that name.

   1829, A London Encyclopaedia […], volume IX, London: Thomas Tegg, page 709, column 1

7. obsoletePhilistia, a region in the Levant inhabited by the ancient Philistines.

   In the west, moreover, as we have seen, he crushed Damascus, and forced Phenicia, Edom, the kingdom of Israel, and "Palestine" or Philistia, to continue the tribute they had agreed to pay Shalmaneser II.

   1882, [John] Cunningham Geikie, Hours With the Bible, or, The Scriptures in the Light of Modern Discovery and Knowledge, third edition, London: Hodder and Stoughton, page 184

8. A number of places in the United States:
   1. A town in St. Francis County, Arkansas.
   2. A community in Newtown, Fairfield County, Connecticut.
   3. A village in Crawford County, Illinois.
   4. A township in Woodford County, Illinois.
   5. An unincorporated community in Brookville Township, Franklin County, Indiana.
   6. An unincorporated community in Harrison Township, Kosciusko County, Indiana.
   7. An extinct town in Shawswick Township, Lawrence County, Indiana.
   8. A township in Story County, Iowa.
   9. A township in Cooper County, Missouri.
   10. A village in Darke County, Ohio.
   11. A city, the county seat of Anderson County, Texas, United States.
   12. An unincorporated community in Greenbrier County, West Virginia.
   13. An unincorporated community in Wirt County, West Virginia.
9. A community in the City of Kawartha Lakes, Ontario, Canada.
10. A village in Over Wallop parish, Test Valley district, Hampshire, England (OS grid ref SU2640).

plural Palestines · alternative archaic Palæstine

1. archaicobsoleteA Philistine.

   […] Iſaac went to Abimelech king of the Paleſtines to Gerara.

   1791, The Holy Bible, page 24

   2 more examples

   The Paleſtines aſſailing the Hebrewes, are overcome by them in battell.

   1602, The Famous and Memorable Workes of Ioſephus, page 127

   The Paleſtines, by extraordinary uſury, at fifty per cent. had poſſeſſed themſelves of almoſt all the riches of the country.

   1794, Romances, Tales and Smaller Pieces of M. de Voltaire, page 289