3 Answers

Definition of 'Hebrew' Random House Webster's College Dictionary

1. (n.) Hebrew
a member of any of a group of Semitic peoples who inhabited ancient Palestine and claimed descent from the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

2. Hebrew
the Semitic language of the ancient Hebrews, retained as the liturgical and scholarly language of Judaism and revived as a vernacular in the 20th century.

3. (adj.) Hebrew
of or pertaining to the Hebrews or their language in its ancient or modern forms:
the Hebrew alphabet.

Etymology: (bef. 1000; OE Ebr?as (pl.) < ML Ebr?&imacr;; ME Hebreu, var. (with H- < L) of Ebreu < OF < ML Ebr?us, for L Hebraeus < LGk Hebraîos < Aramaic &ain;Ibhraij)

Definition of 'Hebrew' Princeton's WordNet

1. (noun) Hebrew
the ancient Canaanitic language of the Hebrews that has been revived as the official language of Israel

2. (adj) Jew, Hebrew, Israelite
a person belonging to the worldwide group claiming descent from Jacob (or converted to it) and connected by cultural or religious ties

3. (adj) Hebraic, Hebraical, Hebrew
of or relating to or characteristic of the Hebrews
"the old Hebrew prophets"

4. (adj) Hebraic, Hebraical, Hebrew
of or relating to the language of the Hebrews
"Hebrew vowels"

Definition of 'Hebrew' Webster Dictionary

1. (adj) Hebrew
of or pertaining to the Hebrews; as, the Hebrew language or rites

2. (noun) Hebrew
an appellative of Abraham or of one of his descendants, esp. in the line of Jacob; an Israelite; a Jew

3. (noun) Hebrew
the language of the Hebrews; -- one of the Semitic family of languages

Definitions of 'Hebrew' The Nuttall Encyclopedia

1. Hebrew
a Semitic language, the ancient language of the Jews, and that in which the Old Testament is written, the words of which, as indeed of others of the same stock, are derived from triliteral roots, and the verb in which has no present tense, only a past and a future, convertible, moreover, into one another.

'Hebrew' - Nearby Entries

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The origin of the term remains uncertain.    The biblical word Ivri (Hebrew: ????), meaning to traverse or pass over, is usually rendered as Hebrew in English, from the ancient Greek  and Latin Hebraeus. In the plural it is Ivrim, or Ibrim.
In Genesis 10:21 Shem, the elder brother of Ham and Japheth, first born son of Noah, is referred to as the father of the sons of Eber (???), which may have a similar meaning.
Some authors believe Hebrew/Ibri denotes the descendants of the biblical patriarch Eber (Hebrew ???), son of Shelah, a great grandson of Noah and an ancestor of Abraham,[4] hence the occasional anglicization Eberites.
The term has not been found in biblical or extra-biblical sources for any tribe or nation other than Abraham and his descendants.
Source:  Wikipedia 

Dates all the way back to the Colombian coffee empire, when the queen was asked who made the coffee she replied "hebrews"