דת

Hebrew

Etymology

From Middle Persian [script needed] (dʾt' /⁠dāt, dād⁠/, “law, justice”), Old Persian 𐎭𐎠𐎫𐎶 (d-a-t-m /⁠dātam⁠/), a cognate of English data.

Pronunciation

• (Modern Israeli Hebrew) IPA^(key): /dat/

Noun

דָּת • (dat) f (plural indefinite דָּתוֹת, singular construct דַּת־)

1. religion
   • c. 200 CE, “Sukkah 56”, in Mishnah:

     מעשה במרים בת בילגה שהמירה דתה, והלכה ונשאת לסרדיוט אחד ממלכי יוונים

     It happened that Miriam bat Bilgah changed her religion and married an officer of the Greek kings.

Usage notes

• In Biblical Hebrew, the construct form was דָּת, as seen in, e.g., Esther 2:12 and Esther 9:13.

Derived terms

• דָּתִי