Japhetic adj.

one of the three sons of Noah, from Late Latin Japheth, from Greek Iapheth, from Hebrew Yepheth, perhaps literally "enlargement," from causative form of the stem p-t-h "to be wide, spacious."

1797, denoting the major language group that includes Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Assyrian, etc., distinguished by triliteral verbal roots and vowel inflection; 1826 as "of or pertaining to Semites," from Medieval Latin Semiticus (source of Spanish semitico, French semitique, German semitisch), from Semita (see Semite).

As a noun, as the name of a linguistic family, from 1813. In non-linguistic use, it is perhaps directly from German semitisch. In recent use often with the specific sense "Jewish," but not historically so delimited.