# 'Anti-Semite' **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 8, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semite/268150 "2004-10-08T03:20:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6f9a4e/32.png) [@citrus\_x\_paradisi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/citrus_x_paradisi)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semite/268150/1 "2004-10-08T03:20:39Z")
Who coined this phrase? Where was it first used? ---
**Author:** ![chukhung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e79b87/32.png) [@chukhung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chukhung)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semite/268150/2 "2004-10-08T03:26:24Z")
This [page](http://www.forward.com/issues/2002/02.10.11/arts4.html) says > [@](#): > > It was coined in 1879 by the German journalist Wilhelm Marr, the author of a book called “The Victory of Judaism Over Germanism.” In that year Marr, in step with the swelling tide of anti-Jewish feeling in Germany, founded his Bund der Antisemiten or “Antisemitic League.” The term caught on immediately. ---
**Author:** ![UDS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecae2f/32.png) [@UDS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UDS)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semite/268150/3 "2004-10-08T03:27:44Z")
According to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-semitism), the German version of the word (“_antisemitismus_”) was coined by Wilhelm Marr in 1873. He used it to describe prejudice against Jews on racial grounds (as opposed to prejudice on religious grounds, for which the word “_Judenhass_” already existed). I don’t know when the word crossed over into English. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semite/268150/4 "2004-10-08T03:28:10Z")
[Wilhelm Marr, in 1873](http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Anti-Semite) ---
**Author:** ![Atticus\_Finch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ec9cab/32.png) [@Atticus\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atticus_Finch)\ **Post date:** [October 8, 2004, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anti-semite/268150/5 "2004-10-08T04:13:34Z")
1881 is the first recorded use in English found by the OED. > [@](#): > > 1881 Athenæum 3 Sept. 305/2 The author, apparently an anti-Semite. Ibid., Anti-Semitic literature is very prosperous in Germany. 1882 Athenæum 11 Feb. 184/1 In these days of anti-Semitism. 1935 Economist 24 Aug. 366/1 The Nazi Party stalwarts…have all been leading an anti-Semitic, anti-Catholic, anti-Protestant…crusade. 1941 J. S. HUXLEY Uniqueness of Man ii. 50 Germanic nationalism on the one hand and anti-Semitism on the other.