גוי

עברית

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גוי

/ɡoj/ Modern Israeli

Where it comes from

Uncertain, possibly related to גֵּו (gév, “body, torso”), i.e. an ”ethnic body”.

Hans Bauer instead suggests a qatl- derivation from גָּאָה (gaʼá, “to rise”), as in Arabic قَوْم (qawm, “nation”) from قَامَ (qāma) and جَيْش (jayš, “troop”) from جَاشَ (jāša).

The semantic shift to "member of another nation" had already begun in antiquity, appearing in extrabiblical sources such as the Damascus Document, and is the likely source of analogous terms like Latin gentilis and English gentile.

noun גּוֹי · goy · גּוֹיִים · גּוֹיִם · גּוֹי־ · גּוֹיָה

Biblical A nation. וְאֶעֶשְׂךָ לְגוֹי גָּדוֹל וַאֲבָרֶכְךָ וַאֲגַדְּלָה שְׁמֶךָ וֶהְיֵה בְּרָכָה׃
Biblical A nation other than Israel. כֹּה אָמַר יְהֹוָה אֶל־דֶּרֶךְ הַגּוֹיִם אַל־תִּלְמָדוּ וּמֵאֹתוֹת הַשָּׁמַיִם אַל־תֵּחָתּוּ כִּי־יֵחַתּוּ הַגּוֹיִם מֵהֵמָּה:
Judaism, from Late Ancient Hebrew gentile (a non-Jewish person), goy אל ישבית איש במקום קרוב לגויים בשבת

In English

gentile non-Jewish
goy non-Jew

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Cite this

MLA

"גוי." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/he/%D7%92%D7%95%D7%99. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

גוי. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/he/%D7%92%D7%95%D7%99

Chicago

"גוי." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/he/%D7%92%D7%95%D7%99.

BibTeX

@misc{micwyn_2026,
  title = {גוי},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/he/%D7%92%D7%95%D7%99},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}