Part 1: Hebrew into Latin into English

Derives from Hebrew term “Yehudi” which simply means–and originally refers to–a member of the Tribe of Judah (or, in Hebrew, “Yehudah”). [In that regard, think of the ‘i’ ending in Hebrew as functioning like the letters “-an” at the end of words like “American” or “Korean” or “African“].

In early usage, “Yehudi” also referred to those dwelling in the area of that tribe and, later, other areas.

Eventually the term also referred to followers of the religion of Judaism and, for example in around 5th century BCE was used interchangeably to refer to “a religious, political, and national entity, without differentiation between these categories” (Encyclopaedia Judaica, s.v. “Jew”).

The “Y” of “Yehudi” swaps out for an “I” in Greek (Ioudaios) and into a “J” in the Latin (Judaeus).

And we get the term “Jew” from there (though in its first English appearance in about the year 1000, it seems to show more of the Greek “I” in terms like Iudea, Iuu, Iuw, and Iew– and it also occurs as Gyu and Giu). [Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica, “Jew”].

YEHUDI

Judaeus

Jew

Part 2: Hate Bait

According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica‘s entry “Jew”:

For Christians, the word “Judaeus” was early conflated with the name of the villain of the gospel story, Judas Iscariot, who was considered the typical Jew. Judas was linked with the devil (Luke 22:3), and the result was an evil triangle of devil-Jew-Judas. This relationship helped to establish the pejorative meaning of the word “Jew” in popular usage.”

In an effort to get out from under the hateful anti-Jewish associations with this Christian framing (which led to the rise of a lot of negative uses of the term “Jew” as a noun and as a verb), Jews in the 19th c. started self-referring as “Hebrews” or “Israelites”–but the Jew-hatred continued.