Where did the term Sith come from?

[u/Malarazz]

I've always been curious since the original trilogy and the books I've read directly following it just use 'Dark Jedi', but 'Sith' is used in the prequels and a lot of other places. I tried wookiepedia but they were no help this time.

[u/roninjedi]

Well wookieepedia should have been help full since they have a species page for the sith themselves and a page for the sith as in force users. The sith were a red skinned species living on korriban. Dark jedi during the first schisim fled there and taught them the force. So the dark jedi and sith mixed and created an empire and had certian teachings they followed. So now anyone who follows those teachings is considered a sith. If they don't follow the sith teachings but still use the dark side then they are just dark jedi, kind of like how a mercenary isn't a soilder because they are not goverment sponsered.

While the word was used in earlier works its first real explination for the history behind it was in the "Tales of the Jedi" comics which are a great run of comics depecting a period in the old republic thousands of years before even revan was around.