Semitic languages
The similarity of the Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic languages was accepted by Jewish and Islamic scholars since medieval times. The languages were familiar to Western European scholars due to historical contact with neighbouring Near Eastern countries and through Biblical studies, and a comparative analysis of Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic was published in Latin in 1538 by Guillaume Postel. Almost two centuries later, Hiob Ludolf described the similarities between these three languages and the Ethiopian Semitic languages. However, neither scholar named this grouping as "Semitic".
Semitic languages
Sometimes, certain roots differ in meaning from one Semitic language to another. For example, the root "b-y-ḍ" in Arabic has the meaning of "white" as well as "egg", whereas in Hebrew it only means "egg". The root "l-b-n" means "milk" in Arabic, but the color "white" in Hebrew. The root "l-ḥ-m" means "meat" in Arabic, but "bread" in Hebrew and "cow" in Ethiopian Semitic; the original meaning was most probably "food". The word "medina" (root: m-d-n) has the meaning of "metropolis" in Amharic, "city" in Arabic and Ancient Hebrew, and "State" in Modern Hebrew.