Cushite

Meanings

Adjective

• Pertaining to the ancient people of the Horn of Africa, historically considered the descendants of biblical Cush.

Proper Noun

• The Cushitic subfamily of languages.

Noun

• A member of one of various peoples native to the Horn of Africa, generally restricted to those that speak Cushitic languages.

Origin

• Cush + -ite, coined in the 1820s. In the early 19th century, the term referred to the tan to dark-skinned people of the Horn of Africa (synonymous with Herodotus' Ethiopians) in general. The technical linguistic sense is due to Friedrich Müller (1876).