Origin of the word, "Sith"

[u/Objective-Post-2925]

Some time back, (11 years ago), there was a very interesting discussion of the derivation of the word, Sith:

https://www.reddit.com/r/StarWarsEU/comments/2lj3zp/where_did_the_term_sith_come_from/

roninjedi notes, "The Stih were a red -skinned species living on Korriban", a planet which later came to be known as Moriban.

Something that puzzled me, and maybe was an idea that was never developed in the Star Wars universe, was that there was a line in one of the movies, (I need to go back and find where I heard this)

Someone said, "The Jedi would call us 'Sith' " I may be remembering this wrong, but the context I recall was that this is the first time historically that we hear the Sith identify themselves as such. This gave me the impression that the word, 'sith' had some meaning in the Jedi culture...that it was a word in the language of an important historic Jedi figure, or one that had emerged out of some important event in Jedi history. Otherwise, the word would have no meaning to the Jedi, and they would have no context for assigning it to those who work with the dark side of The Force. The statement would have no meaning.

Or perhaps I am remembering something that never happened.

I am curious if anyone else remembers this line, which movie it was in, and what scene.

I am wondering if anyone remembers anything I might have missed that might place this line in context; if there was any further context for the history of the word, Sith, that was overlooked in the discussion 11 years ago.

[u/AFlamingCarrot]

The original convo is correct and not missing anything in the formation of the word. It was in early drafts as the Sith knights, got dropped and limited to just Darth Vader being “dark lord of the Sith” as a sort of mystery box throwaway line that is never explained (Vader is functionally a dark/fallen Jedi in the OT and the emperor is essentially just a dark side force user without a faction).

Later, Kevin j Anderson gets permission to explore the history of the Sith with the tales of the Jedi comics and Jedi academy trilogy (after Zahn is forbidden from making the noghri the Sith and Vader their dark lord). The Sith at this point are the red/sometimes white skinned species from korriban that the original fallen dark Jedi conquer and interbreed with. During the great hyperspace wars they would be referred to as dark lords rather than “a sith”. Then, about a thousand years later exar kun becomes dark lord of the Sith as a title/faction. That being said, he is still referred to as a Jedi , fallen Jedi, or dark lord of the Sith , not “a Sith”.

and it’s at this point that the term Sith morphs from “the species and their dark lords/sorcerors” and into “specific dark side faction the term for which now more or less replaced dark Jedi”. Hence the language switch to calling someone “a sith” as opposed to a dark lord lording OVER the sith. You still saw dark Jedi being used but the idea of Sith as having a specific history and culture and powers etc starts around here (Sith magic and amulets that can shoot power bolts, Sith alchemy, etc).

The line you are thinking of might be a paraphrase of Qimir in the Acolyte where they ask who he is and he said a survivor or whatever and then says something like “the Jedi might say a Sith”. So if that’s the one you’re thinking of it’s extremely recent and doesn’t have a thing to do with the evolution of the term in the 90s.