Palestine, the old name for Israel and the surrounding area, came from a people known as the Philistines. They lived on the coastal plain by the Mediterranean and were a seafaring people, which made them very different from the land-centered Israelites.
They were a thorn in Israel’s side, a fierce, warlike people, and—an oddity in that region of the world—they did not practice circumcision, something the Israelites sneered at. (Saying “uncircumcised” was practically the same as saying “Philistine.”)
The book of Judges tells about their wars with the Israelites, who found the mighty Samson to be their best anti-Philistine weapon.
Israel’s first king, Saul, killed himself after the Philistines wounded him severely.
The English author Matthew Arnold used the word Philistine to mean a crude, uncultured person. It passed into the language with that meaning.
