[general_re]

BTW, Semite historically meant all peoples from that region). How did it come to mean Jews exclusively?

Because "Semite" really has two different meanings. The first is that the Semites are not an ethnic group, but a language group - people who speak the Hebrew or Arabic or Ethiopian languages (or Akkadian, Assyrian, Aramaic, Phoenician, and a host of other mostly extinct languages) are Semitic peoples. The other meaning of "Semite" is "descendant of Shem" - i.e., the Jews, who are descended from Shem through Abraham. So when people say "anti-semite" or "anti-semitic", they generally mean "Semite" in the second sense, and use it to mean "anti-Jew" or "anti-Jewish".

[widowithfoursons]

My "really old" dictionary (last copyright 1946) is very clear about the fact that Shem is a word of Greek origin, (also Latin Sem). "A member of a race of mankind (corresponding inexactly to the peoples said in Gen x. to be descended from Shem, son of Noah) comprising the Hebrews and kindrid peoples, as the Arabians, Assyrians, etc". My newer dictionary doesn't mention anything except anti-Jewish.

[MHT]

Shouldn't it be "anti-Levite"?