Judeo-Christian

[Wilson Gray]

On 11/20/05, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
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> Sender: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject: Judeo-Christian
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> There's a discussion on alt.usage.english about "Judeo-Christian", which
> OED2
> and MW11 date to 1899. From APS on Proquest:
>
> * Judeo-Christian, n.
>
> 1841 _Christian Observer_ 8 Oct. 164/3 Until more satisfactory proofs be
> adduced
> to the contrary, we may, however, call the Frankists Judeo-Christians.
> [The sense here is apparently "quasi-Jewish quasi-Christian person". More
> on the
> Frankists: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Frank>.]
> http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=309&VName=HNP&did=752265702
>
> * Judeo-Christian, a.
>
> 1847 _Harbinger_ 16 Jan. 88/2 A unitary religion, embodying the
> Judeao-Christian
> [sic] doctrine of Universal Love, shines, the torch-bearer of humanity,
> far in
> advance of its actual institutions.
> http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?RQT=309&VName=HNP&did=429940111
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>

To the best of my knowledge, "_Judaeo_-Christian" is still the prescribed,
if not the preferred, spelling. That's why a lot of people say
"Judayo-Christian." In fact, this latter was the pronunciation that I used
myself till the early '70's, when I heard a Jewish friend consistently use
"Judeeo-Christian." I gave this some thought and realized that she was
correct, given that -ae- is pronounced [i], except in the name, Mae.
Nevertheless, in my library days, we uniformly pronounced _Judaeica_ as
"Judayica" and not as "Judeeica."

-Wilson






































--
-Wilson Gray