Pertaining to a race, language or culture linked to the line of Shem (see Genesis 10); Semitic languages include Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, and Akkadian.
In linguistics and ethnology, Semitic (from the Biblical "Shem", Hebrew: ש×, translated as "name", Arabic: سام) was first used to refer to a language family of largely Middle Eastern origin, now called the Semitic languages. This family includes the ancient and modern forms of Amharic, Arabic, Aramaic, Akkadian, Ge'ez, Hebrew, Maltese and Tigrinya among others.