Joshua

English dictionary entry

Meanings

name
  1. The sixth book of the Old Testament of the Bible, and a book of the Tanakh.
  2. The son of Nun, Judge of Israel following Moses; author of the Book of Joshua; Quranic figure.
  3. A male given name from Hebrew.
  4. A surname, transferred from the given name
  5. A city in Johnson County, Texas, United States, named after the biblical Joshua.
noun
  1. A Joshua tree.

Pronunciation

/ˈd͡ʒɒʃ(j)ʊə/ /ˈd͡ʒɑʃ(j)u.ə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-Joshua.wav

Word forms

Joshua Josue Joshuas

Etymology

From Biblical Hebrew יְהוֹשֻׁעַ (Yehoshúa'), perhaps from הוֹשֵׁעַ (Hoshéa') with addition of יהוה (YHWH, “Yahweh”), thus meaning "Yahweh is salvation". See הוֹשִׁיעַ (hoshía', “to save”). By cognate a direct equivalent to Jesus via Latin Iēsūs and Ancient Greek Ἰησοῦς (Iēsoûs) from Aramaic יֵשׁוּע (Yēšū́ʿ), akin to Hebrew יֵשׁוּעַ (Yeshúa'), a variant of Yehoshúa'. The Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Bible and the Greek New Testament consistently render the two Hebrew names Yehoshúa' (whence Joshua) and Yeshúa' (whence Jeshua) into Koine Greek as Iēsoûs (whence Jesus).

Synonyms

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.