    the term jew passed into the english language from the greek ioudaios and latin iudaeus, from which the old french giu was derived after dropping the letter "d", and later after a variety of forms found in early english (from about the year 1000) such as: iudea, gyu, giu, iuu, iuw, iew developed into the english word âjew.â it thus ultimately originates in the biblical hebrew word yehudi meaning "from the tribe of judah", "from the kingdom of judah, or "jew". ==etymology==  the jewish ethnonym in hebrew is  yehudim (plural of  yehudi) which is the origin of the english word jew. the hebrew name is derived from the region name judah (yehudah ×××××). originally the name referred to the territory allotted to the tribe descended from judah the fourth son of the patriarch jacob (numbers). according to the hebrew bible judah was one of the twelve sons of jacob and one of the twelve tribes of israel (genesis). genesis 29:35  relates that judah's mother &mdash; the matriarch leah &mdash; named him yehudah (i.e. "judah") because she wanted to "praise god" for giving birth to so many sons: "she said, 'this time let me praise (odeh ××××) god (××××),' and named the child judah (yehudah ×××××)", thus combining "praise" and "god" into one new name. in hebrew, the name "judah" (× × × [×] ×) contains the four letters of the tetragrammaton &mdash; the special, holy, and ineffable name of the jewish god. the very holiness of the name of judah attests to its importance as an alternate name for "israelites" that it ultimately replaces. ===yehudi in the hebrew bible=== the term yehudi occurs 74 times in the masoretic text of the hebrew bible. the plural, y
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