If you searched the word "Jew" on Google throughout the day on Tuesday, you might have been surprised to find that the definition given was an ancient antisemitic stereotype.
The word "Jew," according to this Google result with data derived from Oxford Languages, does not list someone as being a member of the Jewish people. Rather, it is listed as a verb marked offensive, defined as "to bargain with someone in a miserly or petty way."
Looking further after clicking "translations and more definitions," the Google result includes several conjugations of this verb, such as "jewed" and "jewing." It further reveals that the origin of the verb "Jew" is from the 19th century in reference to how Jewish people work with moneylending and trading.
Only after that, however, is the noun "Jew" shown as an option by Google, which is far less offensive and far more accurate.
By Tuesday evening, the Google definition had been reverted back to its original definition, leading with the noun, rather than the verb.
Jews on social media speak out over Google's definition
Several people and organizations spoke out on social media over the definition of Jew on Google as several people immediately rushed to the search engine to see this for themselves.
When one enters “jew” into the Google search engine, a grotesque antisemitic trope comes up. This is in unacceptable @Google pic.twitter.com/zuYkUy2ssO
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) December 27, 2022
The NGO Stop Antisemitism referred to Google's definition as a "grotesque antisemitic stereotype."
Israeli Embassy in the US spokesperson Elad Strohmayer weighed in, stating his disbelief.
I couldn’t believe it so I googled it myself… hey @Google, what’s antisemitism? https://t.co/tNn0YqCMkd pic.twitter.com/OivydCQuRG
— Elad Strohmayer (@EladStr) December 27, 2022
Some social media users claimed that using the lowercase "jew" instead of Jew is the reason for this, since Jew as a proper noun should be uppercase whereas "jew" in lowercase would have to refer to a verb.
However, upon investigation, this was found to not be the case, as the antisemitic verb of "jew" still was the first result when googling uppercase Jew.
This is a developing story.